14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Activision Blizzard has announced its financial results for its most recent fiscal year and the big announcement has been that the MMO World of Warcraft has stabilized its subscriber number at 10.2 million on March 31.
Activision has reported revenue of 1.17 billion dollars (903.7 million Euro) which is a slight decline over the revenue reported for the same period in 2011 but the publisher says that the results are still better than analysts expected.
During the period the Call of Duty franchise has seen 40 million monthly active players while the rival Battlefield 3 from DICE and Electronic Arts has only managed to attract 6.2 million active gamers.
Activision also says that Diablo III, the Blizzard made hack and slash title which will launch on May 15, has set a pre-order record for the company while Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure continues to be one of the most popular titles for kids.
Bobby Kotick, who is the Chief Executive Officer at Activision Blizzard, stated, “Our better-than-expected first-quarter performance was driven by global consumer demand for Activision Publishing ‘s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare3, and Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures, as well as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft which remains the number one subscription-based MMORPG in the world.”
He added, “Through March 31, players have logged more than 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Additionally, Activision Publishing ‘s Call of Duty Elite service continues to grow and currently has more than 10 million registered users including more than two million annual premium members, an increase of approximately 33% from January 31 , 2012.”
The big upcoming releases for Activision Blizzard include: the Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, a whole new MMORPG from Blizzard, Skylander’s Giants, Call of Duty: Black Ops and the new project from Halo developer Bungie.