With over 8.5 million global subscribers, there's little doubt that Blizzard's World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade are the driving forces behind the ongoing success at Vivendi Games, something that was confirmed when the publisher released its financial results for the first quarter of the 2007 fiscal year.

Revenues for the publisher during the three-month period, which ended on March 31st, rose by over 117% to 291 Euros (£199.5 million) on the year. Net profit in the quarter also increased dramatically due to the release of The Burning Crusade, up from 84 million Euros (£57.6 million) to 107 million Euros (£73.4 million).

The announcement comes as a preview of the next WoW update, a 25-man raid called The Black Temple, is announced for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. So far the first expansion to the MMO juggernaut has proved to be a success for Blizzard and Vivendi, breaking the one month sales record for a PC game earlier in the year.