Activision is reloading the golden gun to take another shot at reviving a James Bond video game relic.
Investors are betting on video game publishers...and winning big.
A new online service for "Call of Duty" will give players a massive cache of statistics about their performance in the popular war games and offer social networking features in an attempt to build a community around the critically acclaimed series.
Activision Blizzard is set to launch a new "Call of Duty" game for consoles alongside an ambitious digital platform later this year, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said on the company's earnings call Monday.
The video game industry came out swinging ... and won.
The video game industry has decided to shoot the messenger.
Sony Ericsson announced Sunday it will launch its highly anticipated PlayStation smartphone in March.
The stock price for Activision Blizzard hit a sour note Thursday, the day after the video game company said it was abandoning "Guitar Hero" and focusing on battle games such as "Call of Duty."
The premiere plastic guitar game just flamed out. Activision, beset by falling sales, has decided to shutter the division that created "Guitar Hero" and its sequels.
Instant messaging, texting, Facebook, and ... "Call of Duty?"
November: From the Cold War to zombies, the new "Call of Duty" aims to get fans shooting.
Question: My teenage son has $3,000 in a savings account that we're thinking of investing in a stock or two. I've read that you should invest in things that you have an interest in, which in his case is video gaming. Any suggestions? -- Lisa E.
Move over, Activision. Here comes Activision.
If there's one fundamental truth about video games, it's that smash hits tend to leave a lasting impression.
From downloadable titles like haunting puzzle-action hybrid "Limbo" for Xbox 360 to the long-awaited release of PC sci-fi strategy juggernaut "StarCraft II," summer's been good to gaming fans.
Now that video game sales have eclipsed Hollywood box office revenues and sales of music CDs, you can bet your bitmaps some extraordinarily good games were released in 2009.
Like a well-placed power-up, the right gift can light up the eyes of that video gamer in your life.
For video gamers, the fall season is both a blessing and a curse. While many high-quality titles debut around this time each year, there are only so many dollars to go around.
Jimi Hendrix's music and likeness is being provided for the latest Guitar Hero video game
The biggest story in the videogame business this year has been the way Activision and Electronic Arts, the industry's two dominant powers, are gobbling up smaller competitors that have developed hot-selling games. Activision, publisher of the billion-dollar Guitar Hero series, is seeking approval to join forces with Vivendi Games, maker of the bestselling World of Warcraft. Meanwhile, giant EA, purveyor of Madden NFL and other sports franchises, is making a $2 billion hostile play for Take-Two, which owns Grand Theft Auto.
The $19 billion merger announced Sunday of Activision with the gaming division of French media company Vivendi creates a company that Bobby Kotick, soon to be its CEO, says is unlike any that came before.
James Stewart of Weavering Capital joins CNN to discuss how well the U.S. is weathering the housing market crisis.
Stocks slipped Monday afternoon as investors welcomed the White House's pledge to aid subprime mortgage holders, but continued to worry about how the housing and credit market crisis will hurt the economy in the long run.
CNNMoney: Wall Street weakensupdated: Mon Dec 03 2007 16:01:00
Stocks slipped Monday afternoon as investors welcomed the White House's pledge to aid subprime mortgage holders, but continued to worry about how the housing and credit market crisis will hurt the economy in the long run.
CNNMoney: Stocks slide anewupdated: Mon Dec 03 2007 14:15:00
Stocks slipped Monday afternoon as investors welcomed the White House's pledge to aid subprime mortgage holders, but continued to bail out of housing and financial stocks on worries about the economy.
Stocks were mixed Monday afternoon as investors welcomed news that the White House is taking steps to aid subprime mortgage holders, but held back after last week's rally and ahead of key economic news due later this week.
Stocks were mixed Monday morning as investors weighed lower oil prices and a mild read on manufacturing ahead of a key reading on the labor market due at the end of the week.
CNNMoney: Wall Street wobblesupdated: Mon Dec 03 2007 10:47:00
Stocks dipped Monday morning as investors stepped back after last week's runup and ahead of some key news on the economy due later in the week.
Mortgage companies and lenders are in the hot seat, as Headline News' Jennifer Westhoven reports.
U.S. stocks were lower at Monday's open as investors considered the housing slump and awaited economic reports.
Fortune: Game boyupdated: Mon Oct 29 2007 15:30:00
When Bobby Kotick took over Activision in 1991, the once-thriving videogame company was nearly bankrupt. Kotick, a college dropout and serial entrepreneur, threw himself into resuscitating the business. He shored up the company's balance sheet, selling furniture to pay down debt.
Get your game on
updated: Mon Oct 15 2007 09:33:00
CNN's Matt West talks to Nicole Lapin about the latest video games on the market.
Skateboarding is all about cheeky defiance, which is exactly what Electronic Arts is sporting for going up against Activision's billion-dollar Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise.
Business 2.0: Hits & Missesupdated: Fri Oct 12 2007 12:44:00
You've sold 3.3 million copies of Guitar Hero II, a game in which would-be Claptons try to match the furious fingering of onscreen musicians. So what do you play for an encore? If you're Activision, you strike a profitable new chord by selling songs to players who've grown bored with the tunes that came with the game. In April the company began offering three-song downloads for $6.25 - yup, more than double the price of songs on iTunes - and sold 300,000 in the first three months.
Activision, the No. 2 U.S. video game publisher, said Tuesday it expects fiscal first-quarter results to exceed its forecasts after the company shipped more than 8 million games in the period.
Christmas really does come in July for video game geeks. The industry's biggest event of the year, the E3 Media & Business Summit, will take place during July 11 through July 13 in Santa Monica, California.
With the video game version of "Spider-Man 3" and its theatrical counterpart hitting the United States on Friday, we're not just seeing the continuation of a hugely successful movie franchise.
Activision said an internal review of its stock options grant practices cleared its chief executive, Robert Kotick, and three other top executives and board members of intentional wrongdoing.
The dueling - and deafening - two-story tall speakers of Electronic Arts and Activision have fought their last battle. E3, the industry's annual trade show, which is known for its overwhelming sights, sounds and excess, is scaling down.
YouTube and mainstream media companies will be able to peacefully co-exist, according to many top media executives.
If the video game world were a high school, Take Two Interactive Software would be the guy in the leather jacket who blatantly smokes at his locker.
LOS ANGELES (CNNMoney.com) - Despite the fact that its latest installment was released seven months before the show, "Grand Theft Auto" was king at E3 2005.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Video games aren't just for sullen, antisocial teens. And big media companies have taken notice.
In the fall of 2004, Bloomberg added a small feature to its formidable arsenal of analytical tools. Called the Bloomberg Absolute Return Rank, or BARR, the feature allows you to rank the analysts who cover any given stock by the return you would have earned had you followed their recommendations to buy, sell, and hold.
Top video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. warned that quarterly profit and revenue would be "well below" earlier estimates due to lackluster holiday sales that it blamed on shortages of the Xbox 360.
Being a Hollywood power player may be glamorous, but today it's anything but.
Fortune: Big game huntingupdated: Mon Oct 31 2005 00:01:00
Take-Two Interactive Software sucked most of the air out of last year's holiday videogame buying season, selling more than five million copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But there's no full-...
Business 2.0: Dialing for Dollarsupdated: Fri Jul 01 2005 00:01:00
A simple bowling simulation played on tiny LCD screens wouldn't normally generate excitement about a young software company. Yet by combining hypnotically simple games with a seasoned management te...
CNNMoney: Time to play a game?updated: Tue May 03 2005 09:24:00
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Like many of the teens who are among their biggest customers, video game software companies have reached that dreaded awkward phase.
CNNMoney: EA all the way?updated: Tue Jan 25 2005 09:46:00
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When it comes to video games, there's Electronic Arts and then there's everyone else. At least that's what Wall Street seems to think.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Coming soon to an Xbox near you: "Hannity and Colmes: The Video Game".
You won't really earn any stripes, but you'll feel like you did if you try your hand at Activision's "Call of Duty: Finest Hour." It's a mixed-bag first-person shooter game based on some of the more epic World War II battles.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For the past 20 years, the gaming world has had one universal truth: AAA games cost roughly $50. As we close in on the next generation of game machines, though, change is in the air.
The latest chapter of "Doom," the quintessential action title in computer gaming, is more evolutionary than revolutionary.
CNNMoney: Year of the tech toysupdated: Thu Aug 19 2004 07:45:00
They're cheap, easy to use and fun to play for both kids and young parents.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Since launching the Xbox , Microsoft has purchased some notable developers and had serious talks to buy several others. Now it might have its eyes on a larger prize.
Since 2000, developer id Software has told the world the next installment of "Doom," the game that kicked off the action genre, would ship "when it's done."
The creators of "Spider-Man" faced a daunting task in conceiving a follow-up to the original, one that would make even the most fearless superhero tremble.
"Improbable" is a good word to describe Morris Sutton--a 65-year-old man who founded videogame maker Majesco, based in Edison, N.J., in 1986 with his sons, Jesse and Joey. Morris, who was an invest...
When it comes to researching stocks, numbers can be fickle. Revenues can dry up with the filing of a lawsuit. A sudden change in interest rates can turn healthy leverage into a crippling debt load....
Video games join action figures, trading cards and plush toys as summer movie tie-ins. Two new movie-turned-games -- Activision's "Shrek 2" and Vivendi Universal Games' "Van Helsing" -- are fun adaptations that let gamers control the protagonist instead of just watching him onscreen.
In a recent column, I wrote that I needed to get more video games into my life. Investors who felt the same way -- and added companies such as Electronic Arts and Activision to their portfolios -- are now sitting slightly ahead for the month.
Interactive NanoHypnotics!" says the breathless guy on the stationary bike next to yours.
CNNMoney: Six to watchupdated: Fri May 14 2004 10:22:00
LOS ANGELES (CNN/Money) - E3 is not about the here and now. It's about the future - sometimes the distant future. While a lot of the titles on display here will get a lot of press ink in the coming months, a good percentage won't see the light of day until 2005 - and possibly 2006.
CNNMoney: Games people playupdated: Thu May 13 2004 09:27:00
There's a great scene in the movie "Swingers" where a bunch of guys are playing a version of Electronic Arts' NHL hockey game. They were marvelling over Jeremy Roenick's character, because the former Chicago Blackhawk was inhumanly good.
Investors will have a better sense of direction on Friday after the release of the crucial April unemployment report.
Earnings announcements continued to roll in after the closing bell Wednesday, including reports from Veritas Software, Activision, JDS Uniphase and Overstock.com.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The time has come for some of gaming's biggest companies to go on a buying binge.
Now that TiVo is officially a verb ("I TiVo'd Alias so I wouldn't have to watch the commercials..."), how will advertisers reach increasingly elusive young consumers? Many companies are turning to ...
Four years ago, when Kmart's stock was ravaged by rumors of bankruptcy, it became a favorite of value investors. "It looked cheap relative to both book value and sales," says money manager Jeff Mat...
Pro skateboarder Tony Hawk is standing aboard a corporate jet on his way to a charity event in Houston. In his hand is a Heineken and on the table in front of him is a platter overflowing with lobs...
Fortune: Editor's Deskupdated: Mon Mar 04 2002 00:01:00
Consistent extraordinary performance. That quality defines the companies that top FORTUNE's Most Admired list. It also defines photographer Michael O'Neill (above left, at work on his latest subjec...
Money Magazine: Market Benchmarksupdated: Sat Sep 01 2001 00:01:00
MARKET MEASURES % total return 3 1 3 Level months year years[1]
Video-game makers have always had a somewhat obsessed following. You know the type: intense, gangly kids who spend hours holed up in the basement sweating through round after round of X-Men: Wolver...
Money Magazine: Small-Caps To Watchupdated: Fri Oct 01 1999 00:01:00
APEX PC SOLUTIONS Keeping the network humming along
The Santa Monica office park that houses Thomason Aircraft Co., multimedia-game developer Activision, and a 24-Hour Fitness center doesn't exactly look like a college campus. Where's the football s...
The videogame industry is blasting its way back from a two-year slump. Videogame software sales, including those for PCs, are expected to take off this Christmas and beyond (see chart) as next-gene...
Has the buzz about multimedia grown so loud it's drowning out the truth? Just about everybody with a computer seems to take for granted that CD-ROMs, the silvery disks that hold interactive games, ...
Nintendo, manufacturer of a sophisticated $100 videogame system, seems to have conquered two of the toy business's most bothersome problems: marked seasonality, in which sales stagnate for three-qu...
Fortune: ON THE RISEupdated: Mon Sep 14 1987 00:01:00
Gary J. Beban, 41 COLDWELL BANKER
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|