Activision profits slump as Call of Duty and Skylanders sales fall

Net income at Activision slump by more than $150m year-on-year to $293 million in Q1 2014.

Revenues also fell from $1.32bn to $1.11bn for the quarter compared to the same period last year, but surpassed forecasts of $885m.

The publisher noted lower revenues from its Skylanders franchise and also Call of Duty: Ghosts, when compared to Black Ops II, as reasons for a decrease in revenue compared to last year.

It also stated it had released fewer titles in the first quarter of 2014 and than the first quarter of 2013 as reasons for a year-on-year decline.

Blizzard’s revenues were on the rise however for the three months ending March 31st on the back of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. This helped to offset a loss of 200,000 subscribers from World of Warcraft since December 31st.

The company also reported record digital revenues, which represented 34 per cent of the company’s total revenue on a GAAP basis.

“Our better-than-expected performance was driven by record digital sales in Blizzard Entertainment’s franchises, including World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a new free-to-play game which had already registered more than ten million users as of its March 11th, 2014 launch on Windows and Mac, in addition to Activision Publishing’s Skylanders and Call of Duty franchises,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.