While nearly every other company bled cash, fired employees and cancelled projects, Activision Blizzard posted record results, announcing over $5 billion in revenue for 2008, seeing $429 million worth of profit over the holidays.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick boasted that 2008 was the company's 17th consecutive year of growth, with operating income up 20% from the previous year. The company highlighted its publishing of two of the top-five best-selling franchises on the consoles across all platforms, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, claiming it was the number one third-party publisher on Nintendo's Wii platform.
Similarly, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was touted as the #1 PC title in North America and Europe for the calendar year.
Holiday quarter earnings were $1.2 billion, Activision Blizzard said. Thanks to being flooded with money, Blizzard Activision ended the year with $3 billion in cash and no debt.
Kotick said during a conference call that Activision Blizzard has "more products than ever before" planned for release in 2009, "a small minority of which will consist of a select few wholly owned, internally produced original intellectual properties."
It plans to launch new titles in the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, with new "properly vetted" intellectual properties such as the first-person shooter Singularity and music game DJ Hero in the calendar year.