Activision Blizzard announces their second quarter financial results, which are better than projected, which CEO Bobby Kotick attributes to "record digital sales of our online-enabled franchises." Word is:

In the quarter, the company delivered record GAAP net revenues of $1.1 billion, as compared with $967 million for the second quarter of 2010. On a non-GAAP basis, the company's net revenues were $699 million, as compared with $683 million for the second quarter of 2010. For the second quarter, the company delivered record GAAP net revenues from digital channels, representing a 27% increase year over year, and accounting for 37% of the company's total net revenues. On a non-GAAP basis, record net revenues from digital channels increased 13% year over year, accounting for more than 60% of the quarter's total net revenues.

For the second quarter of 2011, Activision Blizzard's GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.29, as compared with $0.17 for the second quarter of 2010. On a non-GAAP basis, the company's earnings per diluted share were $0.10, as compared with $0.06 for the second quarter of 2010.

Blizzplanet has word from the post-earnings conference call, where the company stated beta testing of Diablo III will commence by the end of the third quarter, which ends in September. If this seems familiar, it is because they announced basically the same thing during the conference call following their Q1 financials.