Activision-Blizzard wants to make mobile versions of all its game franchises
Activision-Blizzard wants to bring all of its game franchises to mobile platforms. The game company has had great success with Call of Duty: Mobile and is also working on Diablo and Warcraft games for smartphones. According to the company, that is ‘just the beginning’.
“We really want to bring all of our franchises to mobile. And in some cases, there are more ways a franchise can be represented on mobile,” said Activision-Blizzard CEO Daniel Alegre. According to the CEO, new interpretations of games can be made for mobile, in addition to mobile games that are more similar to existing games for PCs and consoles. The CEO did not give concrete details about new smartphone games.
Alegre made the statements during the discussions of the quarterly figures, according to Seeking Alpha. He notes that the mobile market with more than three billion users is a major growth market. That market is predicted to grow to four billion users in five years.
Activision-Blizzard is working on Diablo Immortal for smartphones and has previously said that multiple Warcraft mobile games are in development. Alegre says there are also several “unannounced initiatives” underway. He also says that hundreds of developers for mobile games are being hired.
High turnover thanks to f2p games CoD: Mobile and Warzone
Activision is doing good business with free-to-play games Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone. The titles have been downloaded more than 500 million and 100 million times respectively. Revenue for the business was $891 million in the quarter, up 72 percent from a year ago. The monthly active Call of Duty players grew 40 percent and the total monthly active players of Activision games grew to a new all-time high of 150 million in the quarter.
Blizzard had revenue of $483 million, 7 percent higher than the same period a year earlier. World of Warcraft is the main source of income for this business unit. King, creator of Candy Crush and Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, had quarterly sales of $609 million, an increase of 22 percent. Activision-Blizzard’s total revenue was $2.28 billion. Of this, 2.01 billion came from digital sales.
Number of players of Blizzard games is decreasing
The quarterly figures also show that the number of active players of Blizzard games is declining, Massively Overpowered notes. The number of monthly active players of games such as World of Warcraft, Heartstone, Diablo and Overwatch was 27 million in the past quarter. That is 2 million less than a quarter earlier and 5 million less than the same period last year. This is a decrease of 11 million monthly active players compared to three years ago.