Activision boosted by ‘Destiny,’ digital game sales
It was “Destiny” that Activision Blizzard would beat Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings target. Now its “Call of Duty” is to do the same this quarter. The video game publisher got a big assist from the successful launch of “Destiny,” its new science-fiction shooter franchise, released on Sept. 9. Activision (ATVI) said late Tuesday that it had earned 23 cents a share excluding items in Q3, up from 8 cents in the year-earlier quarter and topping the consensus estimate of 13 cents among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Adjusted sales rose 78% to $1.17 billion, beating the $1.01 billion forecast by Wall Street. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Activision lost 3 cents a share, vs. a profit of 5 cents. GAAP-based sales rose 9% to $753 million. In Q3, GAAP-based sales from digital channels represented a record 67% of the total revenue. On a non-GAAP basis, digital channel sales…