EA (ERTS) Ups Ante in (ATVI) Battle

The battle royal between Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS) and Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq:ATVI) has been raised a notch as EA has launched a $100 million marketing campaign in hopes of making a dent in Activision's Black Ops behemoth.

After seeing its Medal of Honor game fail last fall, executives are setting their hopes on Battlefield 3 to take down Activision's Call of Duty franchise. And the stakes have gotten even larger after Black Ops generated $360 million of sales in its first 24 hours on the market.

Electronic Arts is striking back with a $100 million ad campaign that has the appearance of desperation written all over it. And Activision is playing defense by keeping Call of Duty users entertained with new content packs until its next release is out

EA has an uphill battle in trying to overcome the fastest-selling video game of all time. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sold 2.3 million units in March 2010, but that doesn't come even close to Call of Duty.

Electronic Arts closed Tuesday at $19.74, falling $0.11, or 0.55 percent. Activision closed at $11.02, down $0.11, or 0.99 percent.

Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox Sales Up 15 Percent on Kinect Demand

The overall videogame segment suffered a dismal January, as sales were down and no company but Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with their Xbox was able to grow console sales year-over-year.

Microsoft said Thursday they sold 381,000 Xbox units in January, a 15 percent boost over January 2010. The company claims theirs was the only console showing growth for the month.

They could have sold a lot more consoles except for shortages driven by continuing demand for Kinect. Microsoft said that should show improvement throughout February.

According to NPD Group the only positive news for the overall sector was in accessories, which includes Microsoft's Kinect, which obviously was the story there as well.

Sale for accessories in January jumped to $235.1 percent, a six percent gain for the industry over last year.

The bad news in January for videogame software was sales dropped to $576 million, down 5 percent from last January. Hardware sales were worse, falling to $324 million, an eight percent plunge.

The top five selling games in January were Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) Call of Duty: Black Ops, Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2, Electronic Arts’ (ERTS) Dead Space 2, Sony’s (SNE) Little Big Planet 2, and Majesco’s (COOL) Zumba Fitness.

Activision (Nasdaq:ATVI) Files $400 Million Lawsuit Against EA (Nasdaq:ERTS)

Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS) is the recipient of a $400 million lawsuit from Activision Over the alleged poaching of two former executives still under contract with them.

The two employees, Vince Zampella and Jason West, filed a $36 million lawsuit against Activision last March, saying they were fired because the company didn't want to continue paying them royalties on the lucrative "Call of Duty" franchise.

Activision claims Electronic Arts lured the two away from them via Creative Artists Agency. The two have formed a new company named Respawn Entertainment, which will develop games exclusively for Electronic Arts.

The new company hired 40 people away from Activision, generating even more hostility.

Claims against Electronic Arts are they deliberately interfered with the existing contracts of West and Zampella.

Activision says the two never did any direct work on "Black Op," which is poised to become one of the top selling games of all time, and was already in seventh place after less than one month: November. The game was released November 9, and sales remain brisk.

According to Activision, Black Ops has already surpassed $1 billion in sales.

Activision closed Tuesday at $12.23, up 0.02, or 0.16 percent. Electronic Arts closed at $15.93, up $0.08, or 0.50 percent.

Activision's (Nasdaq:ATVI) Black Ops Surpasses $1 Billion Sales Mark

Activision's (Nasdaq:ATVI) videogame juggernaut, “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” has soared past the $1 billion mark in sales, only about a month and a half since its launch on November 9, according to a release by Activision.

In November Activision sold 8.4 million units of Black Ops, making it the No. 7 best-selling game of all-time, with lots of momentum going into the Christmas season.

Black Ops generated sales of $650 million in its first five days of release, making it the fastest-selling game in that time period of all-time.

Activision closed Tuesday at $12.23, up $0.02, or 0.16 percent.

Activision Blizzard's (Nasdaq:ATVI) Black Ops Surpassing Expectations

Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq:ATVI) couldn't be happier with their flagship product Black Ops, as their latest installment, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” has already far exceeded expectations, generating sales of over $650 million in the first five days it was available.

Reviews of the game have been strong in the early days as well, suggesting sales should remain sustainable heading into the Christmas season.

Consensus at this time is Black Ops could sell as many as 15 million units.

Activision closed Friday at $11.68, dropping $0.04, or 0.36. Trading volume was a little below the 3-month daily average.