The report also revealed that the company expects Diablo III to be released around Q2 2012, and a new Call of Duty title - presumably the next Black Ops title - later this year.
As one might expect, the report cited Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as the company’s biggest seller. The game’s meteoric sales were well documented, hitting $1B in sales in a mere 16 days.
Activision’s other smash hit was Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, which was the top selling family-oriented game. According to the report, the game’s accessory packs and figurines made Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure the #8 best-selling game in dollars for the fourth quarter of 2011 and #1 selling kids’ title in 2011.
Understandably, CEO Bobby Kotick was more than pleased, stating, “As we continue to strengthen our leadership position in interactive entertainment, our proven management team and talented employees delivered another extraordinary year of outperformance. With better than expected net revenues, record earnings, record operating margins, and having generated nearly $1 billion in operating cash flow, Activision Blizzard continues to set the industry success bar.
“Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft maintained its leadership position as the number one subscription-based MMORPG around the world and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the number one selling game. Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure was the biggest new IP launch in Activision’s history and it is on track to become an important and sustainable franchise.”
The report also confirmed that the long-awaited Starcraft II expansion, Heart of the Swarm, will be arriving this year. In one of the few negative items in the report was the decline of World of Warcraft active subscriptions in the final quarter of 2011 with 100,000 subscribers lost.
