Yes, that everlasting behemoth World of Warcraft has once again proven to be most lucrative. This time Vivendi is reporting some good news, news I"m sure the executives are happy about:
Last year, the WoW user base surpassed the 8 million mark. Research firm NPD Group said that the game sold nearly 1 million copies at retail in 2006, making the game, released in November 2004, the biggest seller of the year by a wide margin.
The WoW expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, launched in mid-January this year, selling a total of 2.4 million copies at retail in its first 24 hours of availability across multiple continents.
Aside from WoW, other Vivendi Games products that performed well include Scarface: The World is Yours, Ice Age 2, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Eragon and F.E.A.R. for Xbox 360.
Vivendi Games" fourth quarter sales were 326 million euros, up 33 percent year-over-year, driven by WoW and Scarface.