Activision’s fiscal report for 2009 contained some seriously juicy news. First, there’s the scandal at Infinity Ward. Second, there’s this. The report included statistics regarding the company’s revenue sources, revealing that a large majority, like 68%, come from just three franchises: World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Guitar Hero. The report also noted that WoW accounts for a whopping 98% of Blizzard’s revenue.

The obvious concern is for one of those franchises to flop. One bad Call of Duty and suddenly Activision doesn’t look so stable. As the company puts things, “Due to this dependence on a limited number of franchises, the failure to achieve anticipated results by one or more products based on these franchises may significantly harm our business and financial results.” I would say so, fellas.

We already know that rhythm games are on the decline and WoW hasn’t grown in more than a year. No wonder Blizzard’s trying to push Starcraft 2 out the door by mid-year.

Source: Kotaku

Online games make lots of money. You know this. Everyone knows this. It’s why everyone and their mother has made an MMO in the last three years and attempts to advertise them with lots and lots of boobs. A new study by Strategy Analytics has confirmed that widely held belief. It was actually a study of the industry as a whole that showed growth everywhere, but specifically that online gaming would generate more than $20 billion in new revenue over the next three years.

Strategy Analytics says that online gaming is set to grow in revenue by 18.7% year over year, creating a $24.8 billion sector of the market that accounts for 38% of total gaming revenue. In short: it’s gonna be huge. It’s not just online games blowing up, though. SA also predicts a $64.9 billion industry by 2013, compared with the meager $46.5 billion that was 2009.

I hope the students out there are paying attention. These are the kinds of numbers that just might legitimize video games as a career in the eyes of your parents.

Source: Edge Online