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Vivendi Games earnings up 190 percent

World of Warcraft publisher reports massive spike in profits and a "great" economic performance.

Recently, Blizzard announced that its massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft had hit a total of 7.5 million subscribers. With the launch of the hotly anticipated expansion pack Burning Crusade on January 16, apparently all's well in Azeroth.

And life's pretty rosy for WOW publisher Vivendi Games, too. For the three months ending September 30, its profits were 24 million euros ($31 million) compared with 11 million euros ($14 million) for the same three months in 2005. In the first nine months of its current fiscal year, the company boasted an even bigger spike in earnings: 86 million euros ($110 million) compared to 30 million euros ($38 million)--a 186.7 percent increase.

Unsurprisingly, Vivendi Games attributed the profit spike largely due to what it describes as "the higher margin of the World of Warcraft business." It also cited other factors, including the start-up investments for the Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile divisions and strong sales of Scarface: The World Is Yours in October.

VG's Paris-based parent company Vivendi also owns the Universal Music Group, Canal+ Group, SFR, and Maroc Telecom. The conglomerate adjusted its net income for the last nine months to 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion), a 16.3 percent rise on its previous forecast, and stated that its adjusted net income should reach 2.6 billion euros ($3.3 billion).

Deputy chief financial officer Sandrine Dufour commented that the Q4 period was not likely to be as profitable for Vivendi Games as the third quarter had been. "Q4 for games will see the release of some Sierra games, these are console games, and they don't carry the same kind of margin that you have in subscriptions of WOW," she said. "Also, we plan to launch a marketing campaign for WOW which will support the holiday season, and this will also impact on Q4 [financial] performance."

As to disappointing figures reported for WOW in China, Dufour said that the company had recently opened up a new server, and since then, "figures have returned to fast growth."

The company didn't comment on whether an announcement was going to be forthcoming on revenues for World of Warcraft, rumoured to have reached $1 billion for this year. Vivendi opted for general terms instead, describing the financial results of its games division as "very healthy and dynamic," and the overall economic performance as "great."

23 Comments

  • Impostorzim

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 1:21 pm GMT

    My god..I always said that video games were good business, but that is outrageous. This is coming from one game which I just put $70 into 2 months ago! Bravo!!!

  • Eadara

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:22 pm GMT

    Think of how the movie will affect the subscriber count if it's good. I have high confidence that the movie will be worth watching. I love the warcraft story and I beleive legendary can make a good movie.

  • daniel8501

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:19 pm GMT

    I'll bet anything that part of this rise is due to that South Park Episode on WoW. Although it made fun of it, it was still good commercialising.

  • s3k0t3x

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:15 pm GMT

    WOW is the best MMORPG in the planet.... Wow is all that maters, is WOW man!!!

  • Charlie2688

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:14 pm GMT

    That is just INSANE!

  • Cor-WII

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:08 pm GMT

    WoW = Money

  • Runmymouth

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 12:03 pm GMT

    Wow, is all i have to say about wow. 7.5 * 15 = 112.5 or 112.5 million revenue a month from subsciptions alone. Lets take that over a year * 12 = 1.35 billion. This holds a substantial part of the video game market, especially on the PC.

  • Squids-Ahoy

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 11:55 am GMT

    holy crap, 1 billion for a single game...that's amazing.

  • darunia106

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 11:48 am GMT

    And their earnings will go through the roof once the Burning Crusade hits the stands.

  • malikmmm

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 11:36 am GMT

    WOW is just WOW!!!

  • Schillinger

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 11:06 am GMT

    This just in - WoW makes money!

    circa 2004

  • GreySeven

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:55 am GMT

    That would be because they have no competition.

  • mismajor99

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:33 am GMT

    Good for them. WOW seems to be swallowing up most PC sales and then some. With profits like those, you have to wonder where Blizzard/Vivendi and such are heading in the future, as it's the brightest out of any dev and pub around. I wouldn't be surprised to see a movie announced at this point in the near future, not mention a huge amount of content still to be released. Now, just to keep marriages/relationships together, now that's a challenge.....

  • rdo

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:25 am GMT

    vivindi makes record profits and ea loses money? what happend? thats right, the losses followed valve and gabe newell. gabe should be banished from any country that has electricity.

  • SpareJesus

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:21 am GMT

    Agreed with the below comment. I want to see some World of Starcraft. Playing as a drone of the Zerg race would kick ass.

  • Sheiko

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:12 am GMT

    ermm... aside from the first comment... spam? umm this should primary be contributed to WoW as Scarface wasn't all that good if at all. I mean look at the scores and this brings in Profit? Why hide the success of WoW? we all know its got a fast growing fan base that will soon rival the star wars fan base.... maybe even absorb it! We want some starcraft already enough with the warcraft.

  • Pastehunter

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:09 am GMT

    Hey good for you guys keep up the good work

  • juanfraino

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:06 am GMT

    Good 4 them.

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:05 am GMT

    That's a lot of monies.

  • xelloss88

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:05 am GMT

    Can't believe how many people are still just playing World of Warcraft.

  • nrautava

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:01 am GMT

    "First comment!"

    LOL That was the best part of this news....

  • HavokReleased

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:01 am GMT

    W00t.

  • HatefulMidget

    Posted Nov 16, 2006 10:00 am GMT

    First comment!

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