Update: Added hardware projections from earnings call.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based publisher, currently in the middle of an mmoabc8.9 billion merger with Vivendi, generated $602.5 million for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, up from $312.5 million a year ago.

Net income for the quarter was $44.2 million, up from a net loss of mmoabc4.4 million for the comparable quarter last year.

Activision said that fiscal 2008 was its biggest year yet, with $2.9 billion in sales, up from mmoabc.51 billion in fiscal 2007. Annual net income was $344.9 million, up from $85.8 million a year ago.

"Fiscal 2008 was the best year in our history and Q4 was the largest and most profitable non-holiday quarter, even though we did not release any new titles," said CEO Robert Kotick in a statement.

"During the fiscal year, we were the #1 U.S. console and handheld publisher in dollars for the first time ever, according to The NPD Group, and we grew our worldwide share of the console, handheld and PC markets year over year," he said.

Operating margin was 16.5 percent on a GAAP basis.

Activision offered fiscal 2009 revenues guidance (not including Vivendi Games) of $2.75 billion and earnings per diluted share of 72 cents.

Activision expects Q1 revenues of $500 million and earnings per share of 4 cents.

The firm is counting on solid growth of new platforms Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith gave growth predictions for console installed base during calendar 2008:

PS2: Up by 2-3 million units
PS3: Up by 3-4 million
360: Up 4-5 million
Wii: Up 7 million
Handhelds: Up 11 million

According to Griffith, there are about 158 million current, next-gen and handheld platforms in North America.