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Tuesday November 27 2:28 PM ET
Activision Reports Jump in Sales of Newest Games
dailynews.yahoo.com
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Reuters) - Video game maker Activision Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI - news) on Tuesday said U.S. retail sales of its newest games soared during the Thanksgiving holiday week, in step with high demand for the latest Xbox (news - web sites) and GameCube game consoles.
``We are thrilled with our sell-through results for the first big week of this year's holiday season,'' Activision President Ron Doornink said in a statement.
``This bodes very well for both Activision and the video game industry overall, in that it suggests that this year's holiday season is off to a very strong start,'' Doornink said.
Activision shares rose 37 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $21.70 on Nasdaq after rising as high as $22.58 earlier in the session. The stock is off a year high of $27.43, but strong growth in the game industry has kept it well above its year low of $6.88.
Shares of rival game makers were mixed. Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS - news), the industry leader, fell 10 cents, or less than one percent, to $54.21, but THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI - news) was up $1.12 at $54.25.
Activision, the No. 2 U.S. video game maker, said preliminary data indicated that during the week of Nov. 18 to 24, U.S. retail sales of its newest games rose 44 percent from a year earlier. The company did not provide figures for its total sales.
Activision's games includes extreme sports, adventure, fighting and strategy games for Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s (6758.T) (NYSE:SNE - news) PlayStation systems, Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Xbox, and Nintendo (news - web sites) Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS) GameCube, Game Boy systems, and personal computers. |
