Activision Boosts Sales Outlook

The popular video game Guitar Hero II set the cash registers ringing at Activision(ATVI).

The game publisher expects to report fourth-quarter revenue of $313 million -- well above last year's $188 million and its own forecast of $200 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson FirstCall were expecting revenue of $213.8 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue was also fueled by the company's Call of Duty 3 title, as well as better-than-expected performance in its distribution business because of the European launch of Sony's(SNE) latest console, the PlayStation 3.

For its full fiscal year, Activision expects to report revenue of $1.51 billion, compared with $1.47 billion a year earlier and nearly 8% higher than the company's outlook of $1.4 billion.

Shares of Activision were off 6 cents to $20.79 in recent trading. The stock has run up nearly 20% in the past three months.

The company did not provide preliminary EPS because of an ongoing internal investigation into its stock option grant practices.

"We ended fiscal 2007 as the number two U.S. third-party publisher, grew our market share in the U.S. and had two of the top 10 best selling U.S. titles, according to The NPD Group," said Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, in a press release.

Activision also reaffirmed its fiscal-year 2008 revenue outlook, expecting to exceed $1.6 billion. Analysts were expecting $1.69 billion.