Activision has today revealed that its staple franchises of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero have helped drive the company's revenues up, with forecasted revenues for the rest of the 2007/08 fiscal year increased by $200 million (£102.6 million) to $2.65 billion (£1.36 billion).

A significant proportion of the raised revenue was as a result of a successful third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31st 2007. Net revenues during the three month period were up by 80% to $1.48 billion (£759.5 million), with net income also up, from $142.8 million (£73.3 million) to $272.2 million (£139.7 million).

Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision stated, "With videogame software sales increasing 37% in the United States overall, the videogame market growth exceeded even our own forecasts, and we believe this momentum will continue over the coming years. Broader audiences are responding to products like Guitar Hero and we expect that the demographics for videogames will continue to expand."

"Two of our wholly owned, internally developed franchises - Call of Duty(R) 4: Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - set industry records. Our solid performance during the first nine months of the fiscal year has already resulted in our 16th consecutive year of revenue growth and record operating margins. Our product and market momentum gives us confidence to once again raise our fiscal year 2008 net revenues and earnings outlook, as we continue to focus our marketing and sales efforts."

Kotick added, "We are on schedule toward obtaining the stockholder and regulatory approvals needed to complete our business combination with Vivendi Games, which will create the world's largest and most profitable independent video game company...The combined company expects to have the broadest, most diverse portfolio of entertainment assets in the industry, positioning it to capitalize on the continued worldwide growth in interactive entertainment."

The quarter capped off a record-breaking calendar year for Activision, following the massive successes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, together with news of the Vivendi Games merger. Due for completion before the end of June, the deal will create Activision Blizzard, becoming the largest publisher in the videogames industry.