djshagggyd (82.68)

27 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On July 26, 2010 at 4:06 PM, Griffin416 (99.98) wrote:

A piece of info you did not account for. The video game cycle, which I believe could make this pitch not such a big winner. I am not po pooing your pitch, just adding some extra thoughts

About every 5 years, the video game cycle occurs, mainly with new operating systems. During these times when xbox360 and ps3 come out for about a year, video game stock in general outperform the market. During the mature phase (where we are now) those same stock underperform.

Additionally, there is a seasonality to them as well. The 4th to 1st quarter is generally the best, while 2nd and 3rd are generally flatter.  

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#2) On July 26, 2010 at 5:00 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Thanks Griffin!

That is very valuable info. I wasn't aware that the industry had a cyclical nature to it... it makes a lot of sense though. Thank you.

So what's your call ump? Are you sayin' ball one?

(actually it'd be ball two because my pitch for KAR is pretty lame. Not much substance.)

Is there a minor league for Caps? Maybe that's where I belong!  

None-the-less...

I still believe ATVI is a great long-term pick. Regardless of the industry cycles. 15 years from now (barring catastrophic disaster) I believe ATVI will have significantly beaten the S&P.

A lot of ATVI's revenue comes from PC games and subscriptions. I would think that fact would make them less prone to the industry cycles... at least compared with companies like TTWO.

Also, regardless of the cycle... the new Call of Duty game has a high likelyhood of shattering sales records. Even if we're in the middle of a downcycle... the release of that game should off-set it nicely. 

Do you have any further ideas/insights? 

Definitely appreciate the thoughts Griffin... thank you!

~justin 

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#3) On July 26, 2010 at 5:50 PM, MichaelMolenaar (< 20) wrote:

ATVI is a big buy is my book. I'm buying Starcraft II at midnight tonight. The future of entertainment is with PC's and consoles. Traditional forms of physical entertainment are on their way out.

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#4) On July 26, 2010 at 6:47 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Haha... I don't know if I agree that: Traditional forms of physical entertainment are on their way out.

At least I hope not! (btw... I've spent more on board games in the last 3 years than I have on video games...)

Either way, I agree with you that the industry is here to stay... and that it will only grow stronger over time.

Thanks for the thoughts Michael!

~justin 

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#5) On July 26, 2010 at 7:25 PM, WallstreetKnight (33.51) wrote:

@Griffin regarding Cyclical nature of video game companies... 

 

I would agree for companies such as ERTS, or TTWO.

But Activision includes Blizzard Entertainment, which staked it's claim to fame based on PC franchises (with the odd foray into Nintendo systems - flops).  I have a cost average of 10.33 per share in ATVI and I don't think it will revist that point (knock on wood).  Perhaps this bust cycle will be less pronounced for ATVI.  SC2, Wow expansion and D2 on the horizon.  

 

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#6) On July 26, 2010 at 7:25 PM, WallstreetKnight (33.51) wrote:

D3*

 

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#7) On July 26, 2010 at 7:28 PM, Griffin416 (99.98) wrote:

By practicing paper trading and writing pitches one gets better every time.

People often get lost in the moment and forget about cycles (of everything), so I wrote a highly recommended blog about it here:

http://msncaps.fool.com/Blogs/different-stock-market-cycles/409973 

ATVI is a good company, no doubt, but their pipeline is known and is mostly priced in. When the PS4 comes out in 3 years or whatever, there will be no pricing model and lots of hype, therefore its multiple will expand greatly and the stock will jump like crazy.

Cloud computing is in right now, does CRM deserve a triple digit Forward p/e, NO!, but the hype is there and the price action is real...until it crumbles. ATVI is not hot right now, it could be good, but it does not have the wind at its back.

By the way, as a person, I love ERTS and SNE, as a stock guy, I constantly short them. They are horrible stocks. Sometimes the disconnect happen. You are probably right long term, but shorter term, waiting for a game to shatter records is a one week long trade, but it could go wrong.

 

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#8) On July 26, 2010 at 7:34 PM, WallstreetKnight (33.51) wrote:

Interesting.  I will read it.  The "problem" I see with ATVI is the difficulty for games (even record shattering ones) to move the gauge on a company with 14B market cap.

Most games (unlike subscription MMOs) don't have a reoccurring revenue stream. 

 

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#9) On July 26, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Griffin416 (99.98) wrote:

Wallstreetknight - ATVI is not cyclical, haha. No offense, but the PS3 came out at the end of 2006. The 12 months after ATVI's stock doubled. Then the new-ness matured are the stock went from 16.5 to 12 now.

Still don't believe me. The PS2 came out in early 2001. 12 months after that, ATVI doubled...then guess what, proceeded to fall by more that half.

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#10) On July 26, 2010 at 7:46 PM, WallstreetKnight (33.51) wrote:

Oh no, I agree with you as I'm looking at the charts and matching it with the hype.

I was just off-handedly musing that Activision might be worth the wait at sub-11 levels.  It's pipeline of anticipated releases is poised to garner a following considering the relative lack of exciting console titles (attributed to maturity).

I don't think we'll see a dramatic rise, but I found it worthy of a position.  Still thanks for the insight.  The console driven boom/bust was something I never considered...  

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#11) On July 26, 2010 at 7:57 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Griffin-

Thank you very much, I will definitely read your article on market cycles. You clearly have a more solid grasp on the industry than I do. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

I have another question... 

Do you think the cycle of the video game industry will become less intense as the industry itself matures?

It seems to me, that as Wallstreet and our culture become more aware of the influence of companies like ATVI... then maybe the cycles would become less volatile?

Thanks again!

~justin 

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#12) On July 26, 2010 at 7:58 PM, xuincherguixe (< 20) wrote:

I'm pretty skeptical of Activision Blizzard.

Okay. I recently looked a bit at Starcraft 2's map editor (figure that's it's going to be what really drives sales). It looks like it's going to be great.

So long as there aren't a lot of annoying hoops to jump through, Starcraft 2 is going to explosively big.


The next World of Warcraft Expansion? Not likely to pick up new customers, but existing ones are likely to buy it. It's hard for me to get into the psychology of my fellow gamers so it's difficult to say how many of them will buy the expansion. It could be terrible. But even if it is a lot of people would still buy it. I'd say 50% is a good number to go with at this point in time.

Have we even gotten any screenshots of Diablo 3 yet? Blizzard has notoriously long development cycles. Not strictly a criticism but the payoff for that isn't going to be for quite awhile.

Blizzard side of Activision is pretty good. If it was just Blizzard I would say definitely buy.


However Activision side on the other hand is a lot less stable looking. And they're a bigger part. Michael J. Griffith, recently appointed Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard used to work for Proctor and Gamble. That's pretty far removed from video games. I don't think he's someone that will understand the customer.

I almost wonder if they've taken up short positions on themselves, the way they've been conducting business. Getting rid of profit making developers? That's going to cost them big time. I predict more boneheadedness in the future.

I'd consider holding them for the short term, but it's not a safe investment.

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#13) On July 26, 2010 at 7:59 PM, xuincherguixe (< 20) wrote:

I'm pretty skeptical of Activision Blizzard.

Okay. I recently looked a bit at Starcraft 2's map editor (figure that's it's going to be what really drives sales). It looks like it's going to be great.

So long as there aren't a lot of annoying hoops to jump through, Starcraft 2 is going to explosively big.


The next World of Warcraft Expansion? Not likely to pick up new customers, but existing ones are likely to buy it. It's hard for me to get into the psychology of my fellow gamers so it's difficult to say how many of them will buy the expansion. It could be terrible. But even if it is a lot of people would still buy it. I'd say 50% is a good number to go with at this point in time.

Have we even gotten any screenshots of Diablo 3 yet? Blizzard has notoriously long development cycles. Not strictly a criticism but the payoff for that isn't going to be for quite awhile.

Blizzard side of Activision is pretty good. If it was just Blizzard I would say definitely buy.


However Activision side on the other hand is a lot less stable looking. And they're a bigger part. Michael J. Griffith, recently appointed Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard used to work for Proctor and Gamble. That's pretty far removed from video games. I don't think he's someone that will understand the customer.

I almost wonder if they've taken up short positions on themselves, the way they've been conducting business. Getting rid of profit making developers? That's going to cost them big time. I predict more boneheadedness in the future.

I'd consider holding them for the short term, but it's not a safe investment.

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#14) On July 26, 2010 at 7:59 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

WallstreetKnight-

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I'm glad you and Griffin got that cleared up. I thought you were agreeing... but I was confused!

Anyway... it's good to know that you also think highly of ATVI.

Have a good night!

~justin 

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#15) On July 26, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Griffin416 (99.98) wrote:

I happen to think (although not even as close as confident as my previous comments) that cycles will be more pronounced in coming times as information spreads to more people. As people study charts and hype like I do, the next gaming cycle that happens, the stock will probably rally earlier and harder in anticipation of a rally.

In that cycles blog, I was talking about the market in general, every sector has its own cycle. Gaming 5 years-ish, aerospace is 7 years (we have just started one, so PCP, BA, RTN, LMT type companies should start outperforming for quite a while), big pharma rides on presidential cycles - 8 years. The PC cycle replacements cycle...

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#16) On July 26, 2010 at 8:14 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

xuincherguixe-

Thanks for writing! Lots of great thoughts.

I agree with a lot of what you said... but I don't agree that ATVI is an "unsafe" investment.

I know that there has been some "drama" at the top... and with some of their programmers. But I feel the same way as Walking Captain.... as he says in his blog:

Activision Blizzard gets a lot of negative attention in the gaming community, particularly CEO Bobby Kotick. But the gaming community is pretty much as dependent on him as an addict to his meth dealer. 

Another quote I like:

"The dispute is unlikely to hurt future "Call of Duty" sales. More than 20 million people bought "Modern Warfare 2" indicating a high degree of interest beyhond game-industry insiders who might follow the matter."  -Divnich of EEDAR

Buffet talks about investing in companies that "can be run by an idiot... because one day there will be one at the top" (this is a paraphrase). I'm not saying that ATVI can be run by a bunch of idiots... but as long as Blizzard focuses on the "hardcore" gamers and Activision focuses on everyone else... I think everything will work out just fine even if Michael Griffith knows more about business than he does about video games.

With all fan conventions, etc... that Blizzard puts on... I find it hard to believe that they will become out of touch with their fanbase.

I'd love to hear any further thoughts you might have! Thanks again for writing, and have a good night!

~justin 

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#17) On July 26, 2010 at 8:15 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Griffin-

Very interesting. Thank you!!

~justin 

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#18) On July 26, 2010 at 9:22 PM, xuincherguixe (< 20) wrote:

Thought that it was important to bring in another perspective. It's dangerous to underestimate the fickleness of the gaming community, and the destructiveness of bad management.

Also. Most game developers are pretty in touch with the fanbase. Even without conventions. But the powers of bureaucracy and executive meddling are great indeed. Everyone hates DRMs. But they're pretty much standard in the industry.

Blizzard has traditionally had strong a multiplayer component, where you pretty much had to have a CD-Key to play online. That was a pretty unobtrusive way to defeat piracy.

But do the people making the decisions stay in touch with the customer? Personally I think that the company is increasingly underestimating them. Selling the other two races as expansion packs is cutting it close, but I think it'll work.

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#19) On July 26, 2010 at 9:23 PM, xuincherguixe (< 20) wrote:

Another angle to consider. Blizzard has working with http://transgaming.com/ in the past. So that means that we could have fairly early availability for Mac and Linux users. Transgaming itself is available on the TSX Venture as TNG. They offer a service which lets you play Windows games on Linux.

Starcraft 2 on linux would have three effects. It would have a small effect on Activision Blizzard, it would be huge for Transgaming, and it would strengthen the Linux Gaming Community. Of which Cedega is really your only choice. (Technically there's also wine. But most of the gaming stuff was volunteered by Transgaming in the first place in keeping with the Open Source spirit)

Back in the day if you REALLY wanted high performance, you'd use an operating system other than windows. But you extremely limited in choices. It's better now. I personally play Warcraft 3 on Ubuntu.

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#20) On July 26, 2010 at 9:37 PM, pinestholdings (< 20) wrote:

I think the issue is this: your analysis is great, but is totally missing one crucial detail - *the price*.

The question in any investment (or any pitch) is not just whether or not the company is a good company, but rather whether or not the company is a good purchase *at the current share price*.  ATVI is clearly a great buy at $1 per share, and a horrible buy at $100 per share.  I think we can all agree on that.  However, your analysis (while it is very good) totally omits the discussion of price.  ATVI might be a fabulous company - but is it over or under priced?  That is the critical question of investing.

 I think it is overpriced.  It has a P/E in the 40s, which means that it will take 40 years for you to get your money back based on earnings - that being said, using the tried and true Lynch formula, ATVI will have to grow at roughly 40% next year in order to be accurately priced at ~$12/share.  The forward P/E is lower, true, but that is based on estimates and is still rather high.  Further, its "book value" (computed by subtracting liabilities from assets and then dividing by share price) is only $8 per share.  Also, be careful: of that $8 per share, nearly $8 BILLION on the balance sheet is due to accounting goodwill, which is subject to serious manipulation in the hands of the wrong people (not saying it is here, but having goodwill be more than THREE FOURTHS of your assets is a HUGE warning sign that the company's book value per share is overstated).

 

To my mind, ATVI is a great company that is probably not worth $14 billion. That being said, I don't want to rain on any parades.  Keep in mind you are not trying to find great companies.  You are trying to find great companies that are selling for good prices.  Those are two very different missions.

 My top 5 investing books for people getting started:

 1. The Interpretation of Financial Statements (By Ben Graham)
You can't invest unless you can read a balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow statement, and know what they mean and how to track money between the three as it flows into and out of the company.  Period.  Unless you can read the financial statements, you may as well put your money on black. This is a short, simple and easy to understand accounting primer.  The most important of the five, by far.

2.  One Up on Wall Street and Beating the Street by Peter Lynch

3. Buffet: the Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein (get the one with The Essays of Warren Buffet as the foreward).

 4.  The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

 5.   Quality of Earnings by I don't remember
A fantastic book that explains the warning signs that a companies' earnings are not real.  You can't know how much money your investment is actually making without being able to analyze whether or not they are real or imagined.

 

Other great books to check out:

Barbarians at the Gate
Storming the Magic Kingdom
Den of Thieves
Liars Poker
The Big Short
No One Would Listen
The Smartest Guys in the Room & Conspiracy of Fools
Serpent on the Rock
Introduction to Options by Thomsett
Inside Intel
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
Fiasco by Frank Partnoy
Burn Rate
Common Stocks / Uncommon Profits
More Money than God: The Story of the modern hedge funds and their strategies.
The Snowball

 

 

 

 

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#21) On July 27, 2010 at 2:20 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

xuincherguixe-

Wow thanks! 

It's dangerous to underestimate the fickleness of the gaming community, and the destructiveness of bad management. 

Very good point... and well said. I completely agree.

But for a company like Activision... don't you think that the "gaming community" probably only accounts for a small amount of sales? 

Here's an example of my reasoning... 

At Christmas thousands of moms think:

"I'm going to buy Billy a video game"

"I will buy him Shrek because he LOVED the movie". 

Where-as hardcore gamers think: 

"Ooooooo!!! I can't wait until someone uploads Starcraft 2 to BitLord!!" 

Haha... Now don't get me wrong... I know that there are a lot of honest gamers out there who spend a lot of money on software.

But on the flip-side... I don't think too many moms or Billys are utilizing bit-torrents and pirated PS3 discs. 

Which is yet another reason why I believe ATVI has a strong hand. They lure hardcore gamers and get them to pay a monthly fee... yet they ALSO bait the general public with "silly" games that the gaming community has no interest in.

In my opinion it's a lot like the music industry... bands who "sell-out" and go to a bigger labels, etc... sure they lose the respect of their original fan base.... But usually they also end up a lot richer than the bands who "cling to their art."

And in-turn... that money creates more fans. Because of touring, hype, huge label-support, etc... the fanbase soon doubles, triples. The music can be terrible. It doesn't matter as long as the marketing machine is good.

Of course, it doesn't work out this way 100 percent of the time.

But more often than not... GREAT, talented indie bands fade into obscurity while no-talent pop divas live-on forever and thrive.

I think there are a lot of parallels between the above examples and the situation Blizzard is going through with their developers/management.  

Another thing I'd like to hear your opinion on...

What has ATVI's management done that is "bad"? Specifically I'm talking from a business standpoint.

For instance, I don't see a problem with having a business minded man from P&G moving to a company like ATVI. He's just one guy after-all. I'm sure ATVI has plenty of other management types who are more closely tied with hardcore gamers.

I'd really love to hear any further thoughts you might have xuincherquixe... you seem very knowledgeable and I respect your opinion very much. 

Thanks!

~justin 

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#22) On July 27, 2010 at 3:02 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Pinesholdings-

Awesome! Great thoughts and ideas! Thank you for taking the time to do that.

You're correct that I didn't mention the price very much in my pitch. But rest assured, I did think about it quite a bit.

I know ATVI has an extremely high P/E... (currently at 52 which is more than double the industry standard). But I bought my shares over a year ago. And during that year ATVI has significantly outpaced it's 5 year earnings growth rate... yet the share price has barely budged. 

Additionally, I believe they are poised to earn even more, even faster during the next two years due to the excitement and hype behind their upcoming releases.

Another thing that may be of interest to you since you respect Ben Graham... is that ATVI has an NCAVPS of approx $2. Now I know it doesn't come even close to meeting Graham's criteria of an "Net-Net" stock. But considering most companies these days have a negative value for their NCAVPS value... I think ATVI's NCAVPS displays how they are positioned to excel moving forward compared to many companies on the S&P. 

Some of the growth and hype has already been priced into the stock. True. But due to the fact that they have no long term debt, an ample supply of Net Current Assets, increasing revenue and profits, and a solid line-up of products releasing this year... I honestly think they have a lot of room to grow. I don't think they are overpriced at these levels. It may not be a "GREAT" price. But I think it's a good one if you have a 20 year horizon like I do.

I love this: 

Keep in mind you are not trying to find great companies.  You are trying to find great companies that are selling for good prices.  Those are two very different missions. 

Well put friend! Thank you.

The only investing book I have ever read is "The Intelligent Investor". I just finished it about a month ago. It was one of the hardest books I have ever read... but I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. I think I will have to read it many more times before I fully understand it. But I'm starting to feel more confident about the "main" concepts.

The next book I plan to read is: One Up On Wallstreet. I'm glad that you think highly of it! After that I will probably move onto "The Interpretation of Financial Statements".

Then I will probably cycle back through all three books to solidify the concepts.

Thanks again for all the great ideas and thoughts Pinesholdings! I very much appreciate it!

~justin 

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#23) On July 27, 2010 at 7:43 PM, xuincherguixe (< 20) wrote:

First up. I've got another book to add to that list. A Demon of our Own Design by (get this) Richard Bookstaber. As near as I can tell that's his real name. Has a blog and has appeared before congress a few times.

It's not so much about investing as how we inadvertently create risk when trying to reduce it.He may be overestimating the reader a bit.For one there's a line in there about how way back in the day APL was the big programming language and it was bad with loops.

He has a few interesting things to say. One of which is that price movements may more frequently be moving based on liquidity needs rather than new information.

It's a little like Liar's Poker, but Bookstaber doesn't have nearly so much profanity. I'd specifically recommend it to you Pinesholdings, if only based on the assumption you've read what you're suggesting.

It would be interesting to see how much of video games sales is driven by the clueless as opposed to people purchasing (or asking for) what they want specifically. Now that would be a good study. In my experience though, grandmothers don't have as much impact as colledge students.


As to bad management. There was the whole trouble with infinity ward. And to my understanding they got rid of another one of their profit making development studios. I've been having a hard time finding any articles about this though. So take that with a grain of salt.

Still, quick google search got me this http://venturebeat.com/company/activision-blizzard/page/2/ It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Looks like they may have had some pretty good grounds for sacking them. So while this may or may not be bad managing it's still going to come back and bite them hard. Wouldn't count on there being a Call of Duty 3.

I hesitate to comment because I'm really only at the start. I've read a lot but I don't have any investment experience.

Honestly what I'd like to do is buy some calls on Activision Blizzard. Figure that I'd rather be out $100 than a few thousand. I think better than expected sales will push the share price up regardless of if it's actually increased it's value to justify that. And that's when I'd buy some puts. As pineholdings notes a case could be made that it's overvalued, which suggests that such a fall could be a BIG fall. I'm thinking that's when you buy and hold.

When I think about it, it's more likely the company will grow than it is too go bankrupt. Anyone that buys this stock better be preparred for a roller coaster though.

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#24) On July 28, 2010 at 3:02 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Thanks for all the ideas xuincherguixe!

It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens from here on out.

I feel pretty confident about my strategy on this one... it's great to get a mix of ideas and opinions!

All the comments here have been very helpful. Thanks everyone!

~djshagggyd 

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#25) On August 04, 2010 at 4:18 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Here is a press release that came out yesterday... it's about an interesting new game Activision is working on:

 

From Tuesday 08/03/2010 12:00 PM ET - Pr Newswire:

Hot on the heels of their highly anticipated reunion, GRAMMY(R) award-winning rockers Soundgarden and Activision Publishing Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero(R): Warriors of Rock will come together this September in a groundbreaking collaboration that marks the first time a new music album will be simultaneously released and bundled with a video game. All one million North American Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock launch units will contain Telephantasm, a 12-song career-spanning album, and will be exclusively available with the game for one week, prior to the album's retail release. Additionally, day and date with the launch of the game, fans and gamers alike will get full access to the band's new album as downloadable content for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Delivering fans original content exclusively playable in Guitar Hero(R), axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen will also have the opportunity to rock out to "Black Rain," the band's amazing, all-new single, as part of the 90+ on-disc song selection of shredtastic rock music.

"We're extremely excited to be collaborating with Soundgarden on this monumental moment in their music career," said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Guitar Hero. "Guitar Hero continues to break new ground by being the preeminent interactive platform for debuting original content and a stage for the biggest acts in all genres of rock and roll to reach new audiences in an all-new way."

In Addition, on September 28th A&M/UMe will be releasing three expanded versions of Telephantasm which will include a double-disc with 12 additional tracks, five of which are previously unreleased, and Soundgarden's first-ever DVD, featuring 20 videos, 13 of which have never been released, a Deluxe 3-LP Vinyl Edition and an individually numbered Super Deluxe Collector's Edition. The Super Deluxe Collector's Edition will be available for a limited time and will include two CDs, the limited edition DVD, three heavy vinyl discs, a collectible poster, lithos, and much more. These three expanded versions will be available at all music retail outlets and on the band's website.

In Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, join with friends on an epic rock journey to save rock. Featuring an impressive 90+ track set list and a host of all-new gameplay features, living room legends and their friends can strum, drum and wail in the most immersive music videogame experience to date. Delivering the quintessential rock music collection that focuses on guitar shredding hits from bands such as Black Sabbath, Slipknot and Megadeth and larger-than-life band anthems from Queen, Muse and KISS, players can unleash more rewards and unlockable content than ever before in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's Quest Mode, the franchise's first ever story-based mode, and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills. Running on the powerful Guitar Hero engine that has been expanded and refined and with encores from the critically-acclaimed and fan favorite gameplay features that made Guitar Hero one of the most popular franchises of all-time - such as Party Play, Competitive modes and any combination of up to four instruments - the game offers a complete interactive and connected experience bringing friends and foes to the stage in the ultimate rock music experience.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system and by Vicarious Visions for the Wii(TM) system from Nintendo. The game is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information about Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, please visit GuitarHero.com.

 

Yet another example of the marketing ingenuity displayed by the management of ATVI... and also an example of why I expect great things in the future from this exceptionally creative company.

 ~djshagggyd 

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#26) On August 04, 2010 at 4:27 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

Other good news you can use regarding ATVI:

SmarTrend issued an Uptrend alert on shares of Activision Blizzard on June 17, 2010 at $11.35 per share (2.8% return since that call). This bullish candle pattern may point to a continuation of the previously called Uptrend.

(I don't know what a "bullish candle pattern" is... but is sounds pretty awesome! haha... I'll have to look into that)

Also:

60 minutes ago - Pr Newswire 

Cliffhanger, the breathtaking and epic mission from Call of Duty(R): Modern Warfare(R) 2, is now available worldwide for download as a single player demo on the Xbox LIVE(R) Marketplace and on PlayStation(R)Network*.

One of the most recognized levels in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Cliffhanger thrusts players into an epic fight of a lifetime amid near-blinding snowstorm conditions high in the frigid mountains of Kazakhstan. One wrong move and it's certain death as players scale a frozen mountainside, battle their way through a raging firefight, and race for survival aboard a snowmobile under heavy enemy fire.

 

ATVI is up nearly 2.5% today following the release of the COD demo.

~djshagggyd 

 

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#27) On August 04, 2010 at 4:36 PM, djshagggyd (82.68) wrote:

And as if that wasn't enough!

 

Here is more great news for ATVI... they broke a new record!

 

Tuesday 08/03/2010 9:15 AM ET - Businesswire 

 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that StarCraft(R) II: Wings of Liberty(TM) achieved a day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide, making it the best-selling PC game of 2010 within its first 24 hours of availability.* The game went on to sell a total of more than 1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours, setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time.*

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released simultaneously in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on July 27. More than 8,000 stores throughout the world opened their doors at midnight to celebrate the release, and Blizzard Entertainment developers were present at several locations to commemorate the event with players and sign copies of the game.

"We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net(R) in the weeks and months ahead."

"GameStop had more than 3,000 stores open at midnight, so our StarCraft players got a jump start on playing the epic experience Blizzard consistently delivers with its games," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop. "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is officially GameStop's fastest-selling PC game since Blizzard launched World of Warcraft(R): Wrath of the Lich King(R) in 2008."

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment's 1998 hit StarCraft, which has been hailed by players and critics worldwide as one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. Sporting a vibrant 3D-graphics engine, StarCraft II once again centers on the clash between the protoss, terrans, and zerg, with each side deploying legions of veteran, upgraded, and new unit types. Unparalleled online play for StarCraft II is available through a new version of Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment's world-renowned gaming service. Battle.net has been redesigned from the ground up to be the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with several enhancements and new features, such as voice communication, cloud file storage, leagues and ladders, achievements, stat-tracking, and more.

The solo campaign for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty continues the epic saga where it left off in StarCraft: Brood War(R). The story line chronicles the exploits of marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor and features both familiar faces and new heroes. Players are able to tailor the experience, choosing their own mission path and selecting technology and research upgrades to suit their playing style throughout the 29-mission campaign. Several challenge-mode mini-games are also included, with focused goals designed to ease players into the basics of multiplayer strategies.

For more information on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, visit the official website at www.starcraft2.com.

 

Conclusions to be made from these latest press releases: 

Great products... more in the pipeline... solid management... great balance sheet and fundamentals...

 In my mind... a likable company just became lovable. And I'm very satisfied with my decision to invest in this company. 

~djshagggyd 

  

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