World of Warcraft sheds 3 million subscribers in a quarter, but Activision is doing fine

Activision seems to be doing well, all things considered: It did better for the first three months of 2015 than anticipated, and the company has raised its full-year earnings expectations to $4.425 billion, and its digital revenues have climbed to 76 percent of its first-quarter earnings -- a record $538 million.

However, revenues are oveerall down for the quarter year-on-year: $703 million compared to $772 million for 2014.

Notable is a huge drop in World of Warcraft subscriptions. After the release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion last year, the company had "more than 10 million" subscribers; it ended March 2015 with 7.1 million.

But new games are picking up the slack: Life-to-date, Hearthstone and Destiny have generated "nearly $1 billion" in revenues.