Vivendi bags 19% Q3 sales increase; WoW population hits 9.3M

Vivendi recently confirmed its Q3 guidance, and it racked up performance with accurate ties to market analysts’ expectations. Apparently, their guidance also falls in confidence with observers in the business market, reassuring investors that its full year outlook is on-track.

Though the conglomerate-like Vivendi ran through Q3 of fiscal year 2007 with flying colors, its own video game publishing segment holds a success story in itself. Vivendi Games’ performance also grew with the rest of the corporate umbrella. Read on to find out why.

Vivendi Games, whose umbrella encompasses Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Games Mobile, Blizzard Entertainment, and Sierra Online, has posted its financial performance for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 and came up with interesting numbers. The video game publisher took home an approximate 19% hike up in sales for the quarter, leaving the company swimming in US$ 315.2 million from last year’s US$ 265.6 million.

Interestingly, the publisher also seems to have been making a steady come back into the gaming industry. For the past nine months, Vivendi Games has been enjoying a 50% rise in sales compared to their sales in 2006. That amounts to US$ 1.04 billion so far.

It looks as if Vivendi’s plan to divide itself into four dedicated divisions is spelling good times, because revenue derived from sales in Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment have been the major players in revving up the company’s sales performance. However, it has been reported that other divisions have also been pulling their weight, including in the mobile, console, and handheld markets.

Blizzard just recently launched World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in China, which resulted in a boom in WoW player population. To date, there has been an approximate record of 9.3 million WoW players registered, and analysts believe this has been key to Vivendi’s steady success.

Sierra Entertainment’s World in Conflict, the real-time strategy game fast becoming a must for PC, Xbox 360 gamers everywhere, also contributed to the company’s revenue flow.