Activision reported its earnings for the third quarter of its current fiscal year and announced that it has earned $841 million in net revenue, including a digital revenue of $427 million.
The quarter beat the company's estimates by over $100 million and surpasses 2011's Q3 net revenue of $754. Chief Financial Officer Dennis Durkin reports during a financial call that as of Sept. 30, Activision "had no debt and $3.4 billion in cash and investments."
Robert Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, Activision Blizzard noted one reason for revenue gain was the sales of a few particular titles including Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and its continued status as a top-selling PC game, Diablo III success, Skylanders Spyro's Adventure, and the sales of titles in the long running Call of Duty franchise.
"Our unyielding commitment to excellence, the strength of our employees around the globe and our focus on creating great entertainment experiences have enabled us to once again deliver better-than- expected financial results," Kotick said in the press release. "We have, for the third straight year, generated over $1 billion of operating cash flow for the trailing twelve month period ending September 30."
Kotick also said that the company is raising its full year outlook as a result of the third-quarter and it expects the highest non- GAAP earnings per share in the company's history.
"Based on our strong third-quarter performance and increased visibility into the remainder of the year, we are raising our full-year financial outlook and expect to deliver record non-GAAP operating margins and the highest non- GAAP earnings per share in our company's history. We now expect non-GAAP earnings per share will increase more than 18% year over year," Kotick said.
Mists of Pandaria sold through 2.7 million copies in its first week and Diablo 3 has already sold 10 million copies. According to a Eurogamer article, The Call of Duty series has sold over 100 million copies as of Nov. 11, 2011. There are also 40 million monthly active players across all of the Call of Duty titles.