Strong sales of the latest Guitar Hero video game boosted earnings at Activision Inc., prompting the company to raise its earnings’ forecast for the year.

Activision reported third quarter net income of $272 million (86 cents per share), a 90 percent hike from $143 million (46 cents) from the same period a year earlier. Wall Street analysts had on averaged expected income of 80 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial.

Sales for the Santa Monica-based company also surged 80 percent to $1.48 billion, also easily beating analysts’ estimates of $1.36 billion.

Sales of “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” and “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” during the holiday season fueled the quarter’s results, the company said. Activision boosted its fiscal 2008 profit forecast to 97 cents per share from 85 cents per share.

Activision agreed in December to a buyout offer from French entertainment company Vivendi SA that values the company at $9.8 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year. Activision Blizzard Inc. will be a subsidiary of Vivendi and trade on the Nasdaq.

Shares in Activision rose 2.1 percent to $26.70 in early trading Friday on the Nasdaq.