Media giant Vivendi has credited a dominant performance from its gaming division for a strong first quarter that has seen the company’s operating profits rise by 22.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Operating profit at the company reached €771 million for the three months ending March 31st 2007, whilst net income hit €932, a rise of 32 per cent.

And it was the Vivendi Games arm of the company that excelled, with revenues jumping 117 per cent to reach €291 million.

The star performer in Vivendi’s gaming camp was undoubtedly World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade, which broke sales records earlier this year by selling 3.5 million copies across Europe and North America in its first month on release.

“We are clearly running out of superlatives for Vivendi Games, especially World of Warcraft,”' chief financial officer Philippe Capron stated. “We're of course not going to release an expansion pack every quarter, so the rest of the year will be less brilliant.”