Vivendi Games H1 revenues down 11%
Drop attributed mostly to comparison with Burning Crusade launch last year
Vivendi Games has announced its financial results for the first half of the 2008 fiscal year, with revenues down overall year-on-year by 11.2 per cent - although exchange rate fluctuations aside, the figure is closer to 3.1 per cent.
The fall is largely due to the strong release of World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade in the comparable timeframe last year, while this year's expansion - Wrath of the Lich King - won't ship for several months yet.
Total revenues across the half year hit EUR 444 million (USD 698 million), compared with EUR 500 million (USD 786 million) last year, while Q2 revenues were EUR 223 million (USD 350 milion) - up from EUR 209 million (USD 328 million) in the same quarter in 2007.
That represents a Q2 literal increase of 6.7 per cent year on year, or a 17.9 per cent increase with currency fluctuations taken into account.
Vivendi Games and Activision completed a merger at the beginning of this month, forming Activision Blizzard, a move which has triggered restructuring that looks set to hit the Vivendi Games UK office hard.