Profit Sinks at Activision

In order to prop up those and other titles, the company spent heavily on advertising. Marketing costs jumped 48% year over year to $156 million.

But other costs soared as well. Software royalties jumped 79% to $104.2 million. Product development costs more than doubled to $53.1 million as the company upped spending on creating games for the new consoles.

The soft sales showed up elsewhere in the company's report. Inventories rose 77% to $84.8 million as the company saw weaker-than-expected reorders of particular titles. Compared to fourth-quarter sales, days sales outstanding jumped to 46 days from 14 days last year.