Activision and Tencent create Call of Duty smartphone game for Chinese market

Activision is working with Chinese Tencent on a free-to-play version of Call of Duty for smartphones. The game will be released exclusively in China and made by Timi, a studio of Tencent. It will be a first person shooter.

The companies say the Call of Duty game will be released in China “in the coming months.” The game is specially made for the Chinese market and will probably not be released in other parts of the world. According to the announcement, it is a first person shooter, just like the Call of Duty games for PC and consoles. Familiar characters, playing fields, modes and weapons are coming in the free-to-play version. Images of the smartphone game have not yet been released.

The game is made by Timi, a Tencent studio. The same studio makes PUBG: Army Attack, one of two mobile versions of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds for the Chinese market. Whether the Call of Duty game also has a battle royale mode is not clear. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the game that will be released later this year for PC and consoles, will get such a mode.

Presumably, Activision wants to capitalize on the success of PUBG Mobile and the mobile version of Fortnite with the smartphone game. These free-to-play games are good for huge sales figures and are particularly popular in Asia.

Call of Duty games for smartphones have appeared before. For example, Call of Duty: Heroes came out in 2014, but that is a strategy game. That game is still being maintained with new updates. Call of Duty: Zombies appeared a few years before, but that game is no longer kept up. Neither game was a great success.