EA has been toppled!

[tatteredpotato]

Link

Activision has surpassed EA by approximately $20 million in sales the first half of this year, making it the top third party publisher on the block. Well, that explains how they could afford to hire Jamie Kennedy to make a mockery of their press conference. If this information causes a massive "¡¿QUE?!" in your mind, Activision has done insanely well with their acquisition of Red Octane (Guitar Hero), their movie license games (which people are compelled to purchase for ungodly reasons) and franchise staples like Tony Hawk and Call of Duty.

Activision made $387 million up until June, versus EA's $365 million. This would be the first time somebody else has held the top third party publisher spot in ... well, a very long time. Activision's aquisition of Red Octane was obviously a smart move on their part, as the franchise is expected to break $1 billion in sales very soon and makes up a fifth of the company's revenue with $360 million in sales this year according to analysts. For the EA fanboys, don't worry, Madden still hasn't come out this year and that game always boosts EA's bottom line.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I sense more acquisitions in the future for EA...

 

[lupi]

That's a lot of money for the crap they put out.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Lets just hope this makes EA put out a few more quality titles.

Army of Two seems to be a great start, but I'll reserve final judgment for when I play it.

 

[jdport]

Taking on the Guitar Hero name with their red octane acquisition certainly helped this... but EA is publishing Rock Band now with Harmonix so ... that will probably go back EA's way, if Rock Band turns out to be anywhere near as awsome as it looks.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Activision is no better, look at what they did to Troika.

Just imagine how good Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines could have been (already in my top 2 FPS) if they had not been forced to ship it early with half the staff downsized.