Activision Releases Q3 Fiscal Expectations; Ups Nintendo Consoles Support

Possible Highest Net Revenues in Company's History Exceed $82 Million; Wii, DS to Get Transformers, Guitar Hero, and More Through to 2008 and Beyond

Here we go again.

Just when we got done talking about a violently-mature turn for Nintendo (Pink Sheets: NTDOY) with the pending release of Take 2 (NASDAQ: TTWO) subsidiary Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2, another Sony-esque third-party title makes the jump to Wii and/or DS for a future release.

Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) announced this week that in addition to expecting a possible record profit in Q3 for fiscal 2007, a conference call initiated by the company revealed increasing support for Nintendo hardware platforms.

For fiscal 2007 Q3, Activision was the #2 third-party publisher for videogames released on consoles and handheld devices. Additionally, the company expects net revenues of $822.8 million, an increase of $6.6 million as compared to net revenues of $816.2 million previously reported for the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Net income for the fiscal third quarter is expected to rise to $124.8 million, an 84% increase compared with net income of $67.9 million previously reported for the previous-year fiscal third quarter. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter are expected to be $0.41, as compared with earnings per diluted share previously reported for the prior-year fiscal third quarter of $0.23. Excluding the impact of equity-based compensation, the company expects to report earnings per diluted share of $0.42 for the fiscal third quarter. Net Revenue Outlook figures were also raised to $1.40 Billion for fiscal 2007 as a whole.

"Net revenues for Activision's third quarter of fiscal 2007 are expected to be the highest in the company's history", commented Activision Chairman and CEO Robert Kotick. "For the month of November, Activision was the #1 U.S. console and handheld publisher and the #2 publisher for the fiscal third quarter. We achieved these results with a smaller, focused slate that was anchored by four key titles - Call of Duty® 3, Marvel™: Ultimate Alliance™, Tony Hawk's Project 8™ and Guitar Hero II™ and strong execution by our global sales and marketing teams."