Project Lore

Blizzard still expects to put out the Cataclysm expansion pack this year, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced Wednesday in the 2009 fourth quarter conference call on financial earnings.

During the call, Kotick discussed the “better than expected” financial results that Activision Blizzard has shown through 2009, and also spoke on what the company expects for 2010:

“For World of Warcraft, we expect to launch the next expansion pack, Cataclysm, and continue to grow our player base around the world. And finally, a much anticipated release of Starcraft II, which will also be available for download on the new Battle.net site. And that illustrates how we’re building significant digital capabilities, and that we we expect these to create new and unique opportunities for gameplay.”

This is a bit of a relief for me to hear after going months since the reveal of Cataclysm at BlizzCon. We had been told at that point that Blizzard anticipated a 2010 release for Cataclysm, but since then we’ve heard very little. Now we have at least another morsel of hope that we’ll see the expansion in the relatively near future (well, the next 11 months.)

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime expanded on the topic, adding that the development team is continuing work on the expansion, and is aiming for “a release in the back half of 2010.” As we already know, one of the big changes expected is the overhaul of the Old World, and Morhaime states that developers are trying to bring those areas up to match the team’s “constantly rising design standards.”

Of course, things can always change, and a lengthy disclaimer at the front of the webcast conference call notes that “forward looking statements” should not be taken as fact. But hopefully this will hold out as true. And to any of you who have seen release dates listed on gaming sites or Amazon or some such, I would warn you that until we hear it straight from Blizzard, those dates likely aren’t anything beyond a guess.

Some other morsels from the webcast:

• Global Starcraft II Closed Beta testing is slated to start later this month. And Blizzard is aiming for a “mid-2010 release” for the game. (More on this later from Amatera).
• Morhaime stated that only about 30 percent of players who sign up for a trial WoW account end up upgrading to a paid account. He said that he hopes changes brought to the early levels in Cataclysm will help make that number rise.
• Activision Blizzard had its “largest entertainment launch in our history” in 2009 with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
• Kotick also mentioned that the company hopes to continue expanding products onto mediums such as the iPhone, but said that’s less about “huge financial return” than it is about expanding the brands.
• The company ended 2009 with $3.3 billion in cash and investments, and no debt.
• Sales for 2010 are expected to fluctuate quite a bit depending on the console — sale decreases for PS2, DS and PSP, but increases for PS3, Wii, Xbox360 and digital content. Overall, they’re projecting a 5% to 8% growth in the sale of retail and digital software.

The full call includes a lot of technical talk and quite a bit on the business behind the games that we love, but if you would like to listen to the whole thing for yourself, you can access the call on the investor relations section of the Activision Blizzard web site. You also can see a lovely slide show (everything is lovely during this time of year!) on some of the financial key points and a large list of tables on the subject.

So when are you guys hoping Cataclysm will drop? With the Starcraft release expected for the middle of the year and judging from Morhaime’s statement that it’ll be the “back half” of the year, I’m thinking fall. Or maybe Christmastime. We’ll keep you updated!