Activision said on its quarterly earnings call last night that the ongoing PlayStation Network down time would result in the loss of high-margin revenue for the publisher.
It added that it was "hopeful" Sony can restore the service soon, at least before the planned launch of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation DLC for PS3, which is believed to be scheduled for June.
"We're planning on launching the Call of Duty Escalation content pack for the PS3 later in the quarter and I'm hopeful that this situation will be resolved by then."
Sony said yesterday the PSN might not be fully operational again until May 31, six weeks after it was first taken offline.
Assessing the outage's potential cost to Activision, chief financial officer Thomas Tippl said: "For the June quarter... revenues will be down versus the prior year, due primarily to a smaller product lineup and the expected loss of high-margin revenue due to the temporary the PlayStation Network shutdown".
Fellow third party publisher Capcom said this week that the service down time has cost the firm "hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in [lost] revenue", but it added that Sony has been "as transparent as it probably can be" with its business partners about the situation.
Comments
24 comments so far...
Headsrinker on 10 May '11 said:
Heaven forbid, Activision losing money?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Hashbrown on 10 May '11 said:
I never understand problems like this. Surely the people who were going to buy the DLC still will. So they may have a bad week when they were expecting big sales, but once the service is back online surely everyone will buy it then. Its more a delay that a loss
El Mag on 10 May '11 said:
Oh dear god, i said over an hour ago they'd be a story talking about CoD and PSN being down together. I don't know if i should laugh or cry.... i do partly blame ensabahnur though. It's like the twilight zone.
TheLastDodo on 10 May '11 said:
@ElMag:
I'm glad we didn't have a bet going on this.
Barca Azul on 10 May '11 said:
High Margin, like 4 maps for 12 quid you mean?
Downtime can mean a loss and not a delay sometimes. Not sure with games, but people buy other things instead.
In the case of maps, if your stupid enough to pay it anyway, chances are you will again when the PSN is back.
El Mag on 10 May '11 said:
I wish i could guess the lottery numbers so easy. I concentrate really hard on those but just end up always soiling myself *sigh*
raredevice on 10 May '11 said:
It's all about projected and achieved earnings per quarter and possibly earned vs borrowed capital too, much like the film industry. The movie has to pay off the money borrowed to finance the movie in an allotted time, much like a standard loan. If it fails to do this, the interest on that loan begins to negate the money coming in from the sale of the movie and the studio struggles to break even. This is why opening weekends are so important. They need to pay the financiers off as quickly as possible so they can start making a profit.
Moreover, they have timelines for things like this. Say COS has a shelf life of 18 months before the next iteration is released. Well if that map pack only has a six month window before the next map pack is released, they need to sell as many units as possible before that date. And after 18 months it's all over and people invest in the new game instead. So if PSNs downtime eats into those months that's direct loss of earnings.
Or they're just greedy. That's possible too.
dazmond28 on 10 May '11 said:
oh...wait a second......what's that.......yeah you're right....that's the sound of me not giving a damn
joycey on 10 May '11 said:
Poor Microsoft! How much did it have to pay to secure timed exlcusive on these maps? Should just have made cheque out to Anonymous
roynluc on 10 May '11 said:
Article title should've been…
"Activision in selfish money obsessed horror over PSN downtime"
Greedy bastards overcharge for DLC anyway, one reason why I will never buy an Activision title ever again. Last title I bought was MW:2, but got shot of it a week later.
meh2allfanboys on 10 May '11 said:
Activision your just trolling now you rip off merchants , for starters sony are aiming to have THE FULL PSN SERVICE resumed on 31st may you asswipes dont release your absolute bargain map pack dlc
until june 6th sooooooooo unless psn is hacked again within a week which i somehow doubt but dont completely rule it out then their should be no problem you greedy bastards 
wrightandrewjame on 10 May '11 said:
Key words there are high-margin revenue. In other words things that are made for little money that sell for a lot. High-margin products are great for companies, not good for consumers. Essentually you're not getting value for money. So what's the high-margin revenue product? DLC map packs.
So there you go. Activision says to shareholders the PSN down time is bad for them because they can't rip consumers off. Slightly paraphrased I admit.
chubster2010 on 10 May '11 said:
@ Activision
If you're so keen on making profit on DLC...why not release them on PSN a little earlier, rather than making fans wait?
Me? I'm bored to death of CoD...so couldn't really give a toss either way - but I'm sure there are a lot peeved PS3 users out there.
TheLastDodo on 10 May '11 said:
*insert generic haters hating comment following a legitimate point here*
ensabahnur on 10 May '11 said:
Hey don't put this on me, it was you who made the claim so you can take the blame.
kirankara on 10 May '11 said:
Loooooooooooooool
At least some good came out this fiasco then ?
Agree with other poster though , ppl who play black ops on ps3 will still buy the dlc. I mean they put up a horribly inferior port with horrible frame rate drops, low res, and months of horrible lag . ( mine got a week before I traded the pile of poop), so few weeks offline going to stop them??? Have they not seen the rabid cod fanboys om here losing the plot and threatening to kill ppl if they don't get their fix??? Like worse versions of crack addicts. Lol
El Mag on 10 May '11 said:
Please just take a little, i'm starting to think it's all a conspiracy to bring me down.
ensabahnur on 10 May '11 said:
Ok then, put me down for 25% of the blame. But anyone who comes to my door with burning pitchforks is getting sent straight to you.
El Mag on 10 May '11 said:
Thanks. You and the kid from the Morrisons advert were right earlier, it is only gonna get worse before it gets better. Everything you say from this point i'll take as gospel and live my life by. Really would like you to start with the euro millions lottery numbers though.
ensabahnur on 10 May '11 said:
No way Jose, that £85 million's mine. I'll give you friday's numbers though.
4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and finally 4/2. Good luck with that.
El Mag on 10 May '11 said:
If they come out i'll buy you a swimming pool and fill it with Fruit Salads, with Katy Perry and Pixie Lott by the side ready to feed you grapes. Just hope nobody else uses the numbers and takes some of my winnings *looks around suspiciously*
gmcb007 on 10 May '11 said:
Activision not sucking in as much money as usual? So there is a positive to the PSN downtime!
Very_Silver_Ownz on 10 May '11 said:
At least one good thing came out of this.
Imaduck on 11 May '11 said:
Lets hold hands and cry together