EPTOf DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) will delay releasing its new "Singularity" shooting game until 2010, the company said amid speculation it will push back the release of another potential top-selling videogame.
Activision, based in Santa Monica, Calif., now plans to release "Singularity" in the first calendar quarter next year, instead of September. Activision's reason is that it doesn't want to provide any unnecessary competition for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the highly anticipated Activision game available at around the same time that "Singularity" was to be released.
Separately, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia sees Activision delaying the release of "Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty," due in October and expected to sell around three million copies. The launch of an early version of the game was delayed, making it "increasingly appear" the general release date also will get pushed back to 2010, Bhatia said.
An Activision spokesman had no comment on any potential delay of "Starcraft."
The cumulative effect of the "Singularity" delay and a rumored pushback of "Starcraft" may be a positive for Activision, even though it could be removing two potential top-selling games from its all-important holiday shopping-season slate, analysts said.
Whatever Activision may lose by not selling "Singularity" in September will be more than made up for by sales of "Call of Duty" and Activision's "Prototype" game, which was released June 9 and is tracking better than expected, analysts said.
"Despite the delay, Activision maintains the best second-half release date," said Jess Lubert, a Brean Murray Carret & Co. analyst.
-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 09, 2009 17:57 ET (21:57 GMT)
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) will delay releasing its new "Singularity" shooting game until 2010, the company said amid speculation it will push back the release of another potential top-selling videogame.
Activision, based in Santa Monica, Calif., now plans to release "Singularity" in the first calendar quarter next year, instead of September. Activision's reason is that it doesn't want to provide any unnecessary competition for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the highly anticipated Activision game available at around the same time that "Singularity" was to be released.
Separately, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia sees Activision delaying the release of "Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty," due in October and expected to sell around three million copies. The launch of an early version of the game was delayed, making it "increasingly appear" the general release date also will get pushed back to 2010, Bhatia said.
An Activision spokesman had no comment on any potential delay of "Starcraft."
The cumulative effect of the "Singularity" delay and a rumored pushback of "Starcraft" may be a positive for Activision, even though it could be removing two potential top-selling games from its all-important holiday shopping-season slate, analysts said.
Whatever Activision may lose by not selling "Singularity" in September will be more than made up for by sales of "Call of Duty" and Activision's "Prototype" game, which was released June 9 and is tracking better than expected, analysts said.
"Despite the delay, Activision maintains the best second-half release date," said Jess Lubert, a Brean Murray Carret & Co. analyst.
-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 09, 2009 17:57 ET (21:57 GMT)
Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey says that despite the promise of holiday success for games like DJ Hero and Tony Hawk: Ride, Activision's year end could see some snags -- chief among them the increasing likelihood that Starcraft II won't make this calendar year.
Gotta say I saw this coming. The game is just a mess right now and the fundamentals just aren't there yet. The models aren't up to par, the balance is way off, the beta is said to be 4-6 months long and it hasn't even started -- and there are no signs of it starting any time in the near future. Obviously Activision Blizzard isn't going to announce the delay as that would piss off shareholders and ruin their quarter. So it looks like we have a lot of waiting to do.
