While the news industry navel gazes over its inability to charge for online content, online video games continue to laugh in the face of the recession. As Gamesindustry.biz reports, MMO game World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) has hired an extra 500 staff at its support centre in Cork. The centre opened in 2007 and Blizzard only expected it to create 100 jobs by 2010—but WoW’s exponential growth to 11 million subscribers worldwide has prompted a huge rise in demand for customer support. The game studio contracts the centre to Industrial Development Agency Ireland, whose staff speak and write 25 languages between them. The game made $1.34 billion (£840 million) in revenue last year while the Vivendi (EPA: VIV) and Activision game efforts merged in a $18.9 billion (£11.8 billion) tie-up, which finally cleared in April. (Photo: by Chanchan222)

Separately to the renewal of its partnership with BBC Worldwide today, YouTube has agreed to trial pre-roll ads, and not just the usual display banners, on short-form UK TV clips offered by it BBCWW, Channel 4, National Geographic, ITN and Discovery (NSDQ: DISAB) partners. Partners are able to place their own inventory, but the extent to which each is doing so varies. Ads can last up to 30 seconds, at broadcasters’ discretion, but 15 seconds is the guideline and clips with ads must last at least one minute, YouTube told paidContent:UK. Initial advertisers include Warner Bros, Match.com, Activision (NSDQ: ATVI), Renault and Nissan. It kicks off with C4 running ads for WB’s The Hangover movie - but embedding of these clips is disabled. ITV (LSE: ITV), which lost out on Boyle-Mania revenue through not placing pre-rolls and doesn’t have a UK YouTube partnership, is not part of the trial. YouTube had been reluctant to damage the user experience with in-stream ads but introduced them in a test with CBS (NYSE: CBS) in October. After sceptcism, it’s now becoming clearer that pre-rolls could work on premium or long-form videos, if not on user-generated clips - they are now included in videos on the US site’s recently introduced Shows & Movies section. The UK site doesn’t yet have UK Shows & Movies but the trial on short-form here may be a prelude to more long-form relationships acquisitions. YouTube UK head Suveer Kothari, in the release: “By providing premium partners with greater scope to monetise their content, we hope it will encourage them to place more of their content on YouTube. This will give YouTube users more free, entertaining professional content to view and provide advertisers with more professional inventory to showcase their TV creative against.”

While the publishing industry agonises over whether consumers will pay for its online content, the games biz has no such worries. Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) Blizzard’s all-conquering, bandwidth-hogging MMO game World of Warcraft has 11 million paid-up subscribers, making it $1.34 billion (£874 million) last year. Now futuristic MMO game Eve Online, from Icelandic publisher CCP Games, has taken the second-place MMO spot behind WOW with 300,000 subscribers paying $15 (£9.79) a month, as Telegraph.co.uk reports. According to one estimate,  video game sales in the UK alone rose to more than £4.6 billion last year despite the downturn, and CPP are certainly grabbing a slice of that pie: last year the company’s revenues jumped by a quarter to $46.5 million (£30.35 million) last year, and it expects growth to continue this year and make $55 million (£35.9 million) in 2009. It’s even hiring an extra 100 staff to its current workforce of 400 in the US and Europe. More after the jump… CCP is one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital companies, so how about cashing in by going public or a big money buy-out to match Vivendi’s profitable marriage of Blizzard Activision with its own games division? CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson says (via Telegraph.co.uk) that despite several approaches, “We are profitable and we see value in being independent…There is a lot of innovation that has yet to take place in this space.” (Photo from Eveonline.com)

Legendary Pictures has tapped *EA* and *Activision* vet Kathy Vrabeck to head up its new interactive entertainment arm (via Variety). Vrabeck joins Legendary after a few months of speculation about the movie studio’s gaming aspirations; she left her post as head of EA’s casual games division in November 2008. Prior to *EA*, she served as president of publishing at Activision (NSDQ: ATVI). Legendary currently has two game-related properties in the queue: a long-delayed World of Warcraft film, and one based on first-person-shooter Gears of War. Given Vrabeck’s more than ten years worth of industry experience and connections, it’s clear that we’ll see more hybrid game/film and possibly TV show properties coming down the pike. (Activision, for example, has publicly expressed its interest in porting its best-selling Guitar Hero franchise to movies and TV—and Vrabeck served as president of publishing at the company for six years before joining EA).  Even with Vrabeck at the helm, the new unit could have a tough time turning a profit from movie or TV-related gaming content; the LAT reports that the five most recently released movie-based games haven’t sold as well as the industry expected. And CEO Thomas Tull previously invested in now-shuttered game studio Brash Entertainment, (which was supposed to bridge the gap between Hollywood and video games, too).

Music, games and TV group Vivendi (EPA: VIV) says it can continue its impressive Q109 performance through 2009, despite the bulk of extra revenue coming from the integration of recent acquisitions. On Thursday, the company announced revenues 23.7 percent higher year on year at €6.5 billion (£5.8 million) for Q1, while EBITDA grew 15.8 percent to €1.4 billion (£1.25 billion). Vivendi has reaped higher revenues thanks to its merger of Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) and Vivendi Games and its SFR telelcoms division’s acquisition of the Neuf Cetegel provider. But net income was €48 million (£43.1 million) lower at €649 million (£582.9 million), largely due to the new companies’ unprofitable minority stakes in other businesses and less revenue from the company’s stake in the NBC Universal: the JV contributed €29 million compared to €53 million 12 months ago. —Activision Blizzard: The newly merged Guitar Hero and Call of Duty maker has cleaned up in the next-gen console games stakes, with those two games consistently on the top-five best-seller lists in Europe and the U.S.—so no surprise the division trebled its revenue to €731 million (£656.5 million) in the quarter. But the high number is really due to the $18.9 billion merger of Activision and Vivendi games, which married two already successful publishers. Release —Universal Music: Vivendi’s major label saw its digital music sales increase from 27.2 percent of total music sales to 28 percent in the quarter, while its total revenues from digital also increase though a figure isn’t given. Overall, revenues were stable at €1.02 billion (£916 million), a 0.7 percent drop year on year. —SFR: The telco increased its revenue by 31.5 percent year on year to €3.02 million (£2.71 million) after it “consolidated” its wholly-owned provider Neuf Cetegel into the company. Vivendi bought the remaining shares in Neuf back in 2007 but it seems only now are the real benefits being felt. Extracting the Neuf deal, SFR’s revenues were down 0.8 percent year on year: mobile revenue was stable at €2.18 million (£1.95 million) and fixed-line broadband revenue increased 2.3 percent. —Canal+ Group French broadcaster Canal+ saw its revenue increase 1.8 percent to €1.11 million (£996 million). Subscriptions rose by 75,000 year-on-year, driven by demand in French-speaking African countries—and the company expects its customer base to keep growing throughout the year.

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Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday’s session are Allstate, Activision Blizzard, and Prudential.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=5323944 for the full story.

Analysts Daniel Ernst and Scott Tilghman at Hudson Square Research have released an update on the Consumer Technology industry. According to the report, NPD is expected to report US video game industry sales for January on February 11.

Analysts estimate a year-over-year decline of 9.8% in industry revenues. Analysts expect continued sale of top-selling holiday titles, which includes New Super Mario Bros, Wii Fit, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Analysts are also expecting a decent showing from Mass Effect 2 and Darksiders. However, analysts believe that the weakness from catalog sales drove total software sales down by 8.2% year-over-year.

Among the companies in Hudson Square Research’s coverage for the Consumer Technology sector, analysts have a Buy rating for Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), and Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: SNE), and a Hold rating for Electronic Art, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS).

If you've seen the headlines you know that Electronic Arts (ERTS) is in trouble. So bad in fact that I'm waiting for Bruce Springsteen to sing an acoustic ballad about yesterday's addition to the company's endless stream of guidance disappointments.EA's not alone. THQ (THQI) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) are also feeling the effects of a crappy economy a lack of hot trends and far too many gaming platforms. The difference comes in that EA has far more room to fall from here.Company-specific issues have taken their toll. I still can't figure out why the number-one name in sports games ...

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Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) reported third-quarter of 2010 results with a steep fall in net earnings and revenue due to weakness in its EA business, dismal holiday sales for the overall packaged goods sector in Europe and product mix shifts to lower-margin distribution business in North America . Despite higher cost controls, delay in launching new [...]

(ERTS) Electronic Arts’ Net Earnings Report Falls

Investors could have their expectations set pretty high for video game publisher Activision Blizzard, Inc...(Read More)

For very many years Electronic Arts were the biggest game publisher on earth. They have an income of billions every year and they employ thousands of people all around the globe. EA are very important indeed for the video games industry. But they are no longer undisputed number one.[More...]

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) reported third-quarter of 2010 results with a steep fall in net earnings and revenue due to weakness in its EA business, dismal holiday sales for the overall packaged goods sector in Europe and product mix shifts to lower-margin distribution business in North America .[More...]

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) reported third-quarter of 2010 results with a steep fall in net earnings and revenue due to weakness in its EA business, dismal holiday sales for the overall packaged goods sector in Europe and product mix shifts to lower-margin distribution business in North America .  Despite higher cost controls, delay in launching new ...

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Mark Fightmaster takes a look back at news that drove the major market indices today.