New Bond game studio Activision sees red in fourth quarter

Video-game publisher Activision Inc. was hurt in the fourth quarter as the video game industry is seeing a general downturn due to the switching to next-generation game consoles - reports BizJournals.

Activision recently won the rights to produce videogame under the James Bond franchise.

The Santa Monica company lost $9.2 million, or 3 cents a share, in the quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2005, the company turned a profit of $3.6 million, or 1 cent a share.

The losses were less than those predicted by analysts, as estimates placed the losses at 8 cents a share.

Revenues were also down for the quarter, coming in at $188.1 million, down from $203.9 million a year earlier.

On Wednesday, the company was granted the license to produce games for the James Bond franchise through 2014, including games based on Bond movies, as well as non-movie games.

For the end of 2006, Activision earned $41.9 million, or 14 cents a share, on $1.47 billion in revenues. Lasy year, the company earned $138.3 million, or 50 cents a share, last year, on $1.41 billion in revenues.

Santa Monica's Activision Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is parent company to Activision Value Publishing, a subsidiary of Activision Publishing Inc. Its titles include "Call of Duty," "Quake" and the Tony Hawk series.

Discuss this news here...