Analyst predicts "blowout quarter" for Activision

The release of Black Ops and WoW: Cataclysm at the end of last year will see Activision-Blizzard have a "blowout" Q4, one analyst has predicted.

Doug Creutz of Cowen and Company has also altered the expected revenue for the company from $4.58 billion to $4.77 billion.

"We believe that despite some challenges, Activision can grow earnings in FY11, based on continued growth from the Call of Duty franchise and likely new output from Blizzard," he said, adding he expected "modest" contributions from titles like True Crime: Hong Kong.

Creutz also said that there would be more growth for Call of Duty this year, adding that DLC sales were likely to grow. But also included that tie ratio would see an ongoing decrease.

Creutz's predictions for the company also stemmed from assumptions that both Diablo III and the next part of the StarCraft II story arc, Heart of the Swarm, would arrive in the new financial year.

In a separate analyst note, via Gamasutra, Mike Hickey with Janco Partners said he expects Activision to report that 20.6 million units of Black Ops were shipped during the quarter ending December 31, which would confirm Activision's $1 billion sales figure for the title.

The analyst also estimates that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm shipped over 6 million units for quarter, which comes to around $189 million. Blizzard announced earlier in the month that the expansion sold 4.7 million copies in its first month.

Hickey estimates Activision Blizzard will report revenues of $4.7 billion, which is in-line with Creutz's estimate.

Activision releases its results for Q4 2010 on February 9.

Thanks, GI.