For the first time in a whole decade, EA Games has been overthrown as top performing U.S. third party publisher.
According to NPD Group numbers, Activision secured $387.8 million sales from January to June 2007, compared to $365.7 million for Electronic Arts.
EA is often criticized for relying on movie tie-ins (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, James Pond ...), uninspired annual series (Fifa, NHL, NFS, NBA, Battlefield, Sims ...) and for ruining Medal of Honor one sequel at a time (the original MoH:AA gained an average score of 91%, MoH: Vanguard scored an average of 58.6%).
Activision have had their share of movie tie-ins such as Spiderman, Shrek and Star Trek, and , but -arguably- they have published some of the best games in recent years such as Call of Duty, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, The Movies, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Guitar Heroes.
The main force behind Activision's triumph is the continued success of their Guitar Hero IIIwhich contributes solely to around one fifth of the company's revenues. The company's other great successes so far this year have all been Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Transformers, sadly, the trio are below average movie cash-ins.
" For 17 years, I've focused on becoming the No. 1 video game company, and we're getting a lot closer to achieving that objective", said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.
