Activision Blizzard reports quarterly revenue of $1.5bn

Activision Blizzard has announced better-than-expected earnings for its past quarter, reporting $1.5bn in revenue.

Overall for last year, earnings were down slightly from $4.85bn in GAAP net revenue to $4.58bn – though the publisher still earned the top spot in console and handheld publishing in both North America and Europe.

Call of Duty and Skylanders were among the top three best-selling franchises during last year, while StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm was the best-selling PC game of the year. Diablo IIIwas among Activision Blizzard’s breadwinners as well.

World of Warcraft also performed well, holding onto its claim as the number one subscription-based MMO at 7.8m subs. The figure is actually up from the 7.6m WoW subscribers Activision reported at the end of its previous quarter.

As for what the future holds, CEO Bobby Kotick stated that he expects Bungie’s Destiny to be the company’s "next billion dollar franchise.”

Kotick added that "at least three potentially groundbreaking new free-to-play franchises [are planned for 2014]: Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm, and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty Online."