Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) continues to assert itself as a top player in the video game industry.
In the first quarter, the video game developer and publisher saw first-quarter revenues climb 33% to a first-quarter record of $211.3 million. As a result, the company posted earnings that almost tripled from $4.2 million last year to $12.0 million, or $0.08 per share.
The quarter was driven by the success of its Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2 titles based on the movies. The company claimed Spider-Man 2 as the No. 1 seller across all platforms in June, including the Sony (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox. In addition, Shrek 2 was the best seller in May, holding the second spot following the release of the Spider-Man game.
Between the two titles, Activision has already sold more than 5 million units, with the Spider-Man title passing 2 million units earlier this month.
The first quarter's successes build on the holiday-season smash hits Tony Hawk's Underground, True Crime: Streets of L.A., and Call of Duty. And the less-is-more strategy seems to be working -- the company noted in its release that all five titles developed in-house over the past nine months have sold more than a million units each, with three of them shipping more than three units. Spider-Man is on track to do the same.
And with the success of the two games, Activision also bumped up its outlook for fiscal 2005. The company now expects to earn $0.08 per share on $254 million in revenues in the second quarter, with holiday-quarter earnings of $0.52 on revenues of $515 million. The company also now expects to earn $0.69 per share for the full year on $1.10 billion in revenue, up from its previous guidance of $0.64 per share on $1.05 billion in net revenues.
So in a nice improvement, Activision is having a Shrek- and Spider-Man-driven success in the video game offseason.
Video game sports king and fellow Stock Advisor pick Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) reports later today, and THQ (NASDAQ:THQI) -- whose Full Spectrum Warrior has also made a splash -- reports its own quarterly results next week.
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Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Electronic Arts.
