It's good to be the king. Strong sales of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Diablo III, and expectations of a typical jackpot from Call of Duty: Black Ops II have raised Activision Blizzard's expected operating margins to record highs, according to the third quarter 2012 financial report released by the publisher today. On top of that, a planned first-half 2013 release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm should keep its fortunes high well into the next year.
Skylanders, meanwhile, is the best-selling console and handheld game in North America and Europe in terms of dollars spent, thanks to its successful figure and accessory packs. It's also cleaning up as a toy line: Activision Blizzard says it was the best-selling action figure line in the U.S.for the first nine months of 2012, and its follow-up Skylanders Giants is occupying 100,000 linear feet of shelf space across U.S. retailers in preparation for the holiday rush.
Activision Blizzard brought in $841 million in net revenues for the quarter ended September 30, compared to $754 million last year. Its income uptick was almost as impressive, growing to $226 million from $148 million.
