In its first quarter as a combined company, Activision Blizzard raked in $711 million for the three month period ending in September, the publisher announced today. That's a big take prior to the holidays and bigger than the projected outlook, but still resulted in a loss of $194 million for the company. Acti-Blizz CEO Bobby Kotick pointed to titles such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: On Tour, World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed — which it published outside of North America — for the better than expected quarter. The quarterly results note that 42% of the Activision Blizzard's revenue comes from "MMO" (read: World of Warcraft) revenue alone, at $271 million. Another 42% comes from console-based titles, with the Wii leading other platforms with 13%. Just behind that is the Nintendo DS, responsible for 10% of the publisher's revenue.According to the NPD group, Guitar Hero: On Tour was the best-selling title in North America for the Nintendo DS for the quarter, with the Guitar Hero line remaining the best-selling franchise in U.S. on all console platforms year to date. The current quarter, which ends in December, is expected to be much better, with the release of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Call of Duty: World at War and Guitar Hero: World Tour all hitting before the end of the year. Despite having what sounds like a cash-printing line up, Kotick noted "we remain cautious given the likely slowdown in consumer spending this holiday season." Activision Blizzard has project it will see $4.9 billion in revenues and $1.2 billion in operating income for the year. It also announced that the company's board of directors had authorized a $1 billion stock repurchase program, which CEO Bobby Kotick said reflects Acti-Blizz's "confidence in the future of the company." We'll have further details on the publisher's quarter later today.
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