If anyone was hoping to hear Activision Blizzard touch on the entire Ghostbusters situation during today’s conference call, you were out of luck. No mention of the game at all, but Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick did outline what is important to his company, specifically, the Vivendi properties they will continue with. Check out the very last paragraph of the transcript below. It’s almost like a veiled comment towards the Ghostbusters game. We know the title is still in the works, and it will get published…but Activision Blizzard obviously wants nothing to do with it.
…we have identified those products and studios that fit within our within our financial requirements and long term strategies… We are excited to add to our portfolio two proven wholly owned IPs Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Games based on these two franchises have sold more than 55 million units worldwide LTD. We feel these brands have a lot of runway left and will positively benefit from our consumer research and testing. We are encouraged by these games that are in development for the December corridor, but we also know these properties are ripe for reinvention to increase their appeal and that is what we are focused on for the future.
With respect to licensed properties we are also pleased to add Ice Age to our lineup. The Ice Age movies have been very successful, grossing over a billion dollars in revenues and the Ice Age games have sold more than 2 million units. In summary all three of these proven properties complement our brand portfolio and further strengthen our leadership position in family entertainment and movie based video games.
