According to the publisher, the company saw $4.86B in revenues in the calendar year of 2012, up from the $4.76B in 2011. CEO Bobby Kitck stated in the company report, “We are very pleased to report that Activision Blizzard delivered the best performance in its history. With better-than-expected net revenues, record operating margins and record earnings, and over $1.3 billion in operating cash flow, we continue to set the industry success bar. I would like to thank our incredibly talented employees around the world for their passion, drive and creativity, which continues to fuel our success.”
The profits were chiefly due to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and the Skylanders franchises, but the company also recorded record digital revenue for 2012, and claimed the title of “#1 third-party interactive entertainment Western digital publisher.”
Aside form the well-documented success of Black Ops 2, Skylanders Giants was ”the #1 best-selling kids” title for the fourth quarter, while the original Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure stayed strong as the ”#4 best-selling game in 2012”. The report noted, ”As of December 31, 2012, the Skylanders franchise has generated, life-to-date, more than $1 billion in worldwide sales, and through January 2013, Activision has sold more than 100 million Skylanders toys worldwide.”
Blizzard Entertainment itself had two top 10 PC games in North America and Europe with Diablo III being the #1 best-selling PC game at retail in history, selling 12 million copies worldwide through the 31st December 2012 - and that did not include digital sales. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria was the #3 best-selling PC game at retail. Finally, World of Warcraft still remains the top MMO with 9.6M active subscribers.
Activision-Blizzard will be having an open investor’s call later. Stay tuned for more news from the publisher.
