Activision Blizzard has released a positive set of financial results for the three months to September 30, beating its internal forecasts with sales and profits up thanks to a rise in digital revenue.
The publisher's net sales totalled $754 million (£469 million), a modest increase on last year's $745 million. Of that, $427 million came from digital channels, a 16 per cent increase year on year. Profits almost tripled to $148 million (£92 million). The company reduced its total overheads by 14.3 per cent to $592 million.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops was the best-selling console game in the US and Europe for each of the last three quarters, with 20 million map packs sold. It expects the number of premium subscribers to Call Of Duty: Elite, the new social service that launched alongside Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 yesterday, to reach a million before the end of the year.
In a conference call following the results, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime admitted revenues were down year on year due to the absence from the release schedule of an equivalent to last year's StarCraft II. World Of Warcraft subscriptions fell again, dropping 800,000 to 10.3 million.
CEO Bobby Kotick said: "We continue to strengthen our position as the worldwide leader in interactive entertainment and the broadening of our audiences is confirmation that games are becoming as important as film and television as a massmarket form of entertainment."
The company has raised its forecasts for the financial year ending March 31, with the best yet to come thanks to Modern Warfare 3 and an expected rush of interest in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure during the holiday season.