Activision says third parties can succeed on Wii
Via N-Sider
A week after Activision's announcement that Guitar Hero 3 would be coming to Wii, Activision released the results of their past fiscal year. Gamasutra reports that Activision's sales rose to $1.51 billion from $1.47 billion the previous year, and they expect to see another rise this year to $1.8 billion.
Yesterday, Activision held a conference call to their investors. Company officials seemed extremely satisfied with the performance of Guitar Hero, saying they were only getting started and making note of consumers' "insatiable appetite for songs." They are especially happy with how well their downloadable songs have sold—almost $10 million in profit—and they expect those sales numbers to double this year.
According to Activision's expectations, the hardware sales of the PS2 and PS3 will both grow by 4 million units, the Xbox 360 and Wii by 5 million each, and the GBA, DS, and PSP by a combined total of 11-12 million. They expect the software market to grow by 12%, thanks to the expanding userbase this generation.
When asked specifically about Wii, Activision seemed hopeful for the future of third-party software. They said that for the past two console generations, Nintendo's hardware has been intimidating to third parties thanks to the idea that first party games are always better. Now that the Wii is doing so well, Activision is reinvesting in the system. Guitar Hero 3 will be the first product for the Wii that truly "leverages the physical interface," they said.
