Vivendi results show decline for games division

Third quarter results reported by Vivendi Universal show a significant decline in revenues for the company's games division, continuing a downward trend which has carried throughout the year to date.

Vivendi Universal Games, one of the only media assets held by the conglomerate which was not included in a recent acquisition deal with US giant General Electric, reported revenues of â'¬77 million for the quarter - a decline of some 54 per cent from last year's figure of â'¬166 million.

The year to date has been weak for VUG, and in the nine months so far it's recorded a shortfall of some 37 per cent over the previous year's results, with revenues currently standing at â'¬317 million.

The company will expect to pick some of this up in the fourth quarter, which is traditionally its strongest - but with the year's biggest title, Half-Life 2, now set to arrive in 2004, prospects for the fourth quarter don't look all that strong either.

These weak results won't help Vivendi's efforts at selling the games division, which admittedly do appear to be on hold at the moment. The company was recently touting $1 billion as the figure it wanted to realise from the sale of the division; with results like these, it's certainly difficult to see it achieving anything close to that figure.