In their second quarter this year Acitivsion actually had a profit of $700,000, a nice change from their same period last year when they lost over 24 million. The sales of their newest monster game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock were not included in that figure however because they count for their third quarter of this year. The insane rate this game is flying off shelves has already lead them to raise their yearly expectations significantly. The game sold over one hundred million dollars worth of copies in the first week alone!

This one hundred million dollar figure represents the biggest launch of any product in the history of Activision, which has been around since the early days of video gaming. The second quarter being profitable had already boosted their annual estimates up, but these Guitar Hero III numbers have lead Activision to increase it's 2008 estimate of total revenue to just over 2 billion dollars. That is a serious chunk of change.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare launches this week and will represent another healthy infusion of cash into the companies coffers. What spectacular games do they plan to develop with all this money? Well, when CEO Robert Kotick was asked about the possibility of a Guitar Hero MMO he actually said it was a logical move. Visions of The Darkness video "I believe in a thing called love" where they fight off a giant space squid with electricity shooting out of their guitars fill my head.