The person writing up Activision’s financial press releases has it easy. Going back the past few years, each release touts “record” or “better-than-expected” results, largely on Call of Duty’s back.

That hasn’t changed with the company’s first quarter 2012 results, which were, unlike much of the industry, “better-than-expected.”

Activision has a second weapon now, too: Skylanders. More than 30 million of those little buggers has been sold since Skylanders launched last October, and Skylanders Giants is out later this year.

After reading Activison’s financial results and listening to the call with investors and analysts this afternoon, here are the bits that stood out. The first one stuck me as particularly interesting: