Lots of first-quarter results are coming in, so for fans of videogaming finance, here's a quick round-up of 'the action'.
According to number-crunching research agency NPD, Activision was the highest grossing third-party publisher for the first half of 2007, knocking EA from its long-held perch. "Our record performance was fuelled by strong sales of our proven franchises Guitar Hero II, Spider-Man 3 and Shrek The Third, as well as our new intellectual property Transformers: The Game," said Robert Kotick, Activision's chairman and CEO, seemingly determined not to use the dirty word 'game' until absolutely compelled to by the title of his Transformers tie-in.
Apparently, Activision has increased its market share by 5.1 per cent to a record 13.7 per cent, thanks mostly to Guitar Hero. With Sony soon to launch SingStar PS3 and EA prepping its Rock Band challenger it seems the rhythm action genre is set to play an unexpectedly important role in industry fortunes this year. Well, it makes a refreshing change from sports sims, WWII shooters and movie tie-ins.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft has announced first quarter sales of 134 million euros (89.78 million pounds), representing an increase of 90.5 percent on the same period last year. PlayStation 3 titles contributed 21 percent of these sales with Nintendo DS games stumping up 16 percent. Key titles have been Rainbow Six Vegas, Call of Juarez and Oblivion as well as tie-ins like Surf's Up (I've reviewed it in Official PlayStation Magazine this month - it's pretty much what you'd expect from an animated movie license) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. More info here.
Finally, Nintendo has increased its full-year profit forecast by a meaty 40 percent thanks to strong fiscal first quarter figures. Net profits for April to June stand at 80.3 billion yen (about 326 million pounds). This contrasts quite staggeringly with the fortunes of Nintendo's console-building rivals. Sony's games division posted first quarter operating losses of 237 million dollars (although profits for the whole Sony group are dramatically up - more here), while Microsoft's entertainment division saw an operating loss of 315 million dollars for the first quarter of 2007, though president Robbie Bach expects to make a profit next year - more on that interesting theory here.
And that's the end of today's financial report. Go games industry!
