Activision Blizzard investor call live blog

by Adam Holisky Feb 9th 2012 at 4:00PM

We're live blogging the Activision-Blizzard investor call today. While such a call isn't normal live blogging fare for us, we are expecting some important updates on Blizzard products as well as new subscriber numbers for WoW and potentially a hint at the MoP beta or release timeframe (for example, "beta in Q2," "release in Q3," or "major unannounced feature you'll want to sink your money into now because it'll be hot").

Follow along after the break for the live blog. We'll only be covering the pertinent gaming and financial news from the call.

Live blog start times are as follows:

Pacific 1:30 p.m.
Mountain 2:30 p.m.
Central 3:30 p.m.
Eastern 4:30 p.m.
London 9:30 p.m.
Paris 10:30 p.m.
Sydney 8:30 a.m.

The live blog is now over.

4:27PM That's all, thanks for reading! We'll be hitting up a few notable news bits with further analysis shortly.

4:19PM Morhaime: Response to patch 4.3 has been positive. Successful at driving engagement. "December was a good month for us."

4:18PM Morhaime declined to comment on Brazilian subscriber numbers.

4:18PM Morhaime: Happy with how subscribers numbers held up in "our most competitive quarter ever."

4:17PM Morhaime: "Pleased with the [WoW] marketing results in Q4."

4:14PM Morhaime: "We expect 2012 to be a big year for Blizzard."

4:13PM Blizzard is really focused on e-sports and StarCraft 2.

4:12PM Morhaime: Target Q2 launch for Diablo III.

4:12PM Morhaime: "We're looking forward to receiving feedback [from the March press event] for the upcoming beta for the Mists of Pandaria."

4:11PM Morhaime: 1 million signed up for Annual Pass.

4:11PM Morhaime: Annual Pass has been successful.

4:10PM Morhaime: Patch 4.3 contributed to retaining subscribers.

4:10PM Morhaime: No significant change in subscriber numbers from the previous quarter.

4:09PM Morhaime: "Preparing to launch multiple titles in 2012."

4:09PM Morhaime is up now.

4:02PM Diablo III released this year. More info on Joystiq.

4:01PM New CoD title this year (surprise surprise).

4:01PM MW 3, Black Ops, and MW 2 were the #1, #2, and #3 most played games on Xbox Live, respectively.

3:58PM Right now, it's Activision Publishing talking about publishing stuff; after this should be Morhaime.

3:54PM Blizzard is expected to release at least two titles this year, according to Activision Blizzard.

3:51PM Activision Blizzard expected revenue for 2012 is $4.5B.

3:46PM Activision Blizzard is essentially doing well financially. It has good cash flow and is investing in product development.

3:43PM CoD Elite has 1.5M annual premium members.

3:36PM WoW has approximately 10.2M subscribers, according to the first slide in the presentation.

3:34PM The call has started. Right now, there's a lot of business talk (nothing of interest to all of us, really).

3:08PM The call and the live blog will start in about 25 minutes. It usually takes the Blizzard folks about 10 to 15 minutes or so after that to get to anything good.

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)

rhorle Feb 9th 2012 4:54PM

I like how CoD has almost as many subscriptions as TOR

calaf Feb 9th 2012 4:56PM

"Blizzard is expected to release two titles this year" Wait this is news isnt it.. Does this mean either heart of the swarm or MoP will not be out this calender year (assuming d3 is definitely this year).

eel5pe Feb 9th 2012 5:08PM

"at least"

Jebediah54 Feb 9th 2012 5:10PM

I thought the same thing, and if I had to guess which one is still not known, I'd guess Heart of the Swarm. Mists is pretty far into the development cycle and I don't see Blizz postponing Diablo III since the Beta is already out.

Enzimus Feb 9th 2012 5:20PM

I hope it's HotS, if MoP were to be pushed into 2013, we'd be looking at year without any patches.

Plainswander Feb 9th 2012 5:18PM

"4:13PM Blizzard is really focused on eSports and SC2." -- didn't they try that already?

(Not sniping just to snipe, I am, after all, a loyal fanboy... just genuinely curious..)

omedon666 Feb 9th 2012 5:20PM

I think a far bigger deal would have been if they said Blizzard WERE NOT releasing two titles this year. I saw "two titles this year" and my reaction was "you'd bloody better!"

Dolohov Feb 9th 2012 5:32PM

"Annual Pass has been successful."

"1M signed up for Annual Pass."

It was brilliant.

I enjoyed the SWTOR beta Thanksgiving weekend despite some bugs. I was seriously considering dropping WoW when it came out. On the other hand, I really didn't want to give EA $60 for an unfinished game. The annual pass was the excuse I needed to wait. If SWTOR is still going strong in one year, I'll play it. Meanwhile, I'm perfectly happy playing WoW, getting D3 for free, and enjoying the Mists beta with 999,999 other people. I hope they invest some of those billions in revenue on beta servers, though.

omedon666 Feb 9th 2012 5:41PM

Something else to consider is that one of those two titles would be well served to be no later than Q2. I don't know about anyone else, but they can keep their pony, their "free diablo" and their beta access if my first of two potential 6-month blocks to meet my one-year arrangement doesn't see me playing Diablo or MoP. I'll break that deal in a heartbeat if GW2 beats D3 or MoP to the shelf.

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