Two blockbuster video game releases from Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc. helped the company drive an overall revenue gain for the largest software makers in Orange County in the past year.
The county’s top maker of video games saw revenue jump 41% to $1.7 billion in the 12 months through March. The latest editions of Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” and “StarCraft” games accounted for much of the increase.
The surge boosted combined revenue for the county’s 20 largest software companies. They saw a 15.3% increase in sales from a year earlier to $7.1 billion for the 12 months through March, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
Without Blizzard, the top software makers here grew revenue 9% to $5.4 billion as the ongoing economic recovery took hold.
The list includes locally based software makers as well as subsidiaries and operations of big companies such as Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp.
The companies are ranked by revenue generated from local operations or by total revenue if the company is based here.
The gains were fueled by improvements in consumer and corporate spending that helped reverse a 4% revenue drop among companies listed a year ago.
Three of the top five software makers reported sales increases for the 12 months through March. Another notched a gain according to a Business Journal estimate.
Nine companies on the list increased revenue, while two saw drops.
Four were Business Journal estimates and five companies did not provide information from a year ago for comparison.
The top software companies employ 7,704 OC workers, up nearly 3% from a year ago.
It was a mixed bag on the hiring front as three companies added workers and four cut staff. Six were flat, four were Business Journal estimates and five did not provide information for comparison.
Software makers combined for total employment of 674,760, up 3% from a year ago.
Busy Year
Blizzard is riding a hot streak after a busy year in 2010.
Its multiplayer online game “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” was released in August and broke records for the company, selling more than 3 million copies in the first 24 hours.
Blizzard’s customers pay about $40 for the game and $15 a month to play it online. The game features two fictional races fighting for control of a fantasy world.
“World of Warcraft” counts more than 12 million users.
Blizzard sold more than 1.5 million copies of “StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty” in the first 48 hours of its release, making it the fastest-selling game of its type.
“StarCraft II” sells for about $60 and is free to play online once the software is purchased.
Blizzard saw first-quarter sales of $357 million, up 17% from a year earlier.
The release of “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” drove the results for parent Activision Blizzard Inc. of Santa Monica, itself a unit of France’s Vivendi SA.
Irvine-based Sage Software Inc., the North American unit of Britain’s Sage Group PLC and No. 2 on the list, is looking to break out of a two-year sales slump.
It posted revenue of about $860 million for the 12 months through March, down 1% from a year ago.
The past six months saw Sage post a 1% increase in sales compared to a year ago, to $430 million for the period.
New Chief Executive Pascal Houillon is reshaping Sage’s executive team and has laid out a strategy to boost the company’s brand in hopes of getting back to growth.
“We are at the beginning of a new environment at Sage,” said Houillon, who took over the top post in March after running Sage’s Southern Europe division.
Sage’s software streamlines accounting, purchasing, payroll processing and other day-to-day business tasks.
No. 4 Quest Software Inc. in Aliso Viejo topped $784 million in revenue, up nearly 12% from a year earlier.
The company had several acquisitions, investments and partnerships in the past year to pick up security-related technologies and roll them into its product lineup.
Quest makes software that helps corporations become more efficient by improving on existing applications by Oracle, Microsoft and others.
The company has yearly sales of about $770 million and is the largest publicly traded software company here, with a market value of about $1.9 billion last week.
No. 10 Irvine’s Vision Solutions Inc. was the biggest revenue gainer on the list by percentage. The company, which makes software that backs up data and keeps servers running during maintenance or in the case of a disaster, saw revenue hit $180 million, up 80% from a year ago.
Major Shifts
Vision has seen business in the Middle East grow some 20% in the last year.
“Major shifts are under way as businesses of all sizes deploy virtualization and cloud infrastructures to improve performance,” said Ed Vesely, senior vice president of marketing and business development. “These large demand shifts continue to drive our business forward in the Middle East and all regions.”
Vision nearly doubled its size in early 2010 with its $242 million buy of Southborough, Mass.-based Double-Take Software Inc., a publicly traded maker of data management and disaster recovery software.
Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST SOFTWARE COMPANIES List (pdf)
