Tag Archives: atvi

‘Call of Duty’ maker combating foreign currency woes

Video game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI) didn’t get a big bounce from December-quarter earnings like its peers Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive Software. But it did experience a change in sentiment to the positive in trading Friday. Activision stock was down as much as 7% from Thursday’s close in morning trading Friday. But by midday it was up more than 1% to a more than four-month high. By midafternoon trading on the stock market today, however, Activision stock was down a fraction, below 22. Late Thursday, Activision reported Q4 earnings that beat expectations, but sales in the holiday quarter came up short. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company earned 94 cents a share excluding items, up 19% year over year, on sales of $2.21 billion, down 3%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 88 cents and $2.24 billion. “2014 was another successful year as we achieved record results and introduced new…

GameStop rises on strong next-generation software sales

Video game retailer GameStop (GME) earned a power-up with its holiday sales report late Tuesday. Investors were enthused by strong sales of video game software in the December quarter. GameStop stock rose 12.4% to 36.84 in early afternoon trading in the stock market today. GameStop’s total global sales for the holiday period ended Jan. 3 were $2.94 billion, down 6.7% compared with the 2013 holiday sales period. GameStop’s (GME) sales were negatively affected by foreign currency exchange rates due to the strong dollar. In constant currency, GameStop’s holiday sales were down 4%. New software sales grew 5.8%, or 8.9% in constant currency. The growth was driven by software for Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One consoles, led by hot titles such as Activision’s (ATVI) “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare,” Take-Two Interactive Software’s (TTWO) “Grand Theft Auto 5” and Ubisoft’s “Far Cry 4.” Sales of new hardware declined 32%…

‘Call of Duty’ fails to lift declining video game sales

The latest edition of  Activision Buzzard’s (ATVI) military combat franchise “Call of Duty” wasn’t enough to keep U.S. video game sales from dropping for the second straight month in November. Sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 11% to $2.41 billion last month at U.S. retail stores, the NPD Group reported late Thursday. In October, game sales slid a tiny 0.1%, ending a streak of eight straight months of year-over-year growth. Game hardware sales fell 23% to $1.01 billion and software sales dipped 2% to $1.06 billion. Accessory sales rose 2% to $331 million.