Activision Blizzard’s third-quarter profit beats forecasts

Activision Blizzard Inc., the largest U.S. video-game maker, posted third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates on gains from its “Skylanders” and “Diablo” titles.

Net income rose 53% to $226 million, or 20 cents a share, from $148 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier, the Santa Monica company said Wednesday. Excluding items, profit of 15 cents beat the 8-cent average of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Its “World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria” game helped the company gain about 1 million online subscribers in the quarter, and its “Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures” generated the most revenue of any console game, including accessories such as action figures, the company said.

“In a very challenging environment, we executed very, very well,” Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in an interview.

Third-quarter sales, excluding changes in deferred revenue, rose 20% to $751 million and beat the $710.2-million average estimate.

The company projected fourth-quarter sales, excluding changes in deferred revenue, to reach $2.41 billion, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $2.34 billion, and profit of 70 cents a share, compared with estimates of 67 cents.

Activision is scheduled to release a new game in the “Call of Duty” series Tuesday.