Activision Makes More Money than Expected

Activision published its financial results for the third quarter of 2012 on its investor site yesterday, showing the company has plenty to be happy about. Most significantly, those results were better than Activision expected, and the publisher's biggest title of the year – no prizes for guessing what that is – hasn't even come out yet.

The net revenue for this quarter of 2012 is listed as $841 million, which is significantly higher than both the result for the same period of last year ($754 million) and the lower projected revenue the company predicted for itself in its last financial report (only $740 million). The titles to which Activision attributes its success include World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Diablo III, and Skylanders Spyro's Adventure.

Activision's total net revenue for the first three quarters of 2012 – i.e. the “nine months” period – is a whopping $3.088 billion, which is actually lower than the $3.348 billion revenue for the same period in 2011. But the publisher seems confident. After all, Call of Duty: Black Ops II comes out next week, and if the series continues to make more and more money with each new entry then Activision is in for a big bonus.