Activision Reports Record Earnings

Although Activision head Bobby Kotick is among the most controversial figures in the industry, there is no doubt that the man knows how to run a company that makes money -- a lot of it. In a just-released financial report, Activision Blizzard revealed that it netted $503 million on a record total of $1.4 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2011 (up from $1.3 billion in the same quarter in 2010).

That hefty sum is due to a number of products,  most significantly Call of Duty: Black Ops and its digital content like the First Strike DLC, World of Warcraft: Cateclysm, and StarCraft II: Wings of LIberty.

The company also revealed an interesting fact about Black Ops online play: to date, players have logged in 1.2 billion hours of online play in the game.

Source: Activision via Joystiq