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Blizzard’s Warcraft Boosts Outlook for Parent

The ongoing success of blockbuster online video game “World of Warcraft” by Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc. is helping its parent project better-than-expected quarterly results.

Blizzard, part of Vivendi SA’s Activision Blizzard Inc., is a big growth driver for the combined company that formed last year in a complex deal by Vivendi valued at around $19 billion.

In an earnings preview Thursday, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard said it’s set to beat its own outlook for the three months through March due in part to better-than-expected sales of Blizzard’s “Warcraft” series and Activision titles “Call of Duty” and “Guitar Hero.”

Excluding charges, Activision Blizzard said it expects to beat its most recent first-quarter outlook of $105 million in profits and $860 million in sales.

Wall Street analysts, on average, are looking for profits of $52 million on sales of $570 million.

“Global consumer response to the ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Guitar Hero’ franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s ‘World of Warcraft’ remains strong despite the challenging economic environment,” Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Robert Kotick said in a statement. “We exceeded our quarterly financial goals as the video game market continues to grow and our franchises continue to perform.”

Blizzard’s founder and Chief Executive Michael Morhaime continues to run the company as a stand-alone unit of Activision Blizzard in Irvine.

In the same announcement, Blizzard said it inked a three-year deal to renew its “World of Warcraft” licensing agreement with China’s NetEase.com Inc., an Internet service provider.

“Warcraft,” which has nearly 12 million subscribers worldwide, has been a big success for Blizzard in China.

China’s subscriber model is different than the one Blizzard uses for other countries.

Players pay per game session and can play anywhere they can access the Internet.

Other subscribers pay a flat fee of around $15 per month and download a copy of the game to a single computer.

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