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UPDATE 1-Activision Blizzard holiday-quarter forecasts miss estimates


FILE PHOTO – Gamers play Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 at the Paris Games Week (PGW), a trade fair for video games in Paris, France, October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

(Reuters) – Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) on Thursday forecast fourth-quarter revenue and profit that missed analysts’ estimates, sending the videogame publisher’s shares down 8 percent in after-market trading.

The company forecast fourth-quarter adjusted revenue of $3.05 billion and profit of $1.06 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $3.06 billion and $1.34 per share respectively, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Activision released “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4”, the latest version of its blockbuster franchise on Oct. 12 and earned more than $500 million in the first three days of release.

However, these initial sales figures disappointed investors who had higher expectations.

The success of games from the “battle royale” genre such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has also somewhat challenged game publishers like Activision and Take Two Interactive Software Inc (TTWO.O).

Activision’s net income rose to $260 million, or 34 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $188 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 52 cents per share. Total adjusted revenue fell nearly 13 percent to $1.66 billion.

Analysts on average had expected revenue of $1.66 billion and profit of 50 cents per share.

Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta



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