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Activision has published its third fiscal quarter report and shows that the Call of Duty franchise is doing very well in 2019 (via Twinfinite).
Even though net revenue and earnings per share have dipped year-on-year, Activision Blizzard chief executive officer Bobby Kotick stated that the results ‘exceeded our prior outlook’. Total revenue generated during the previous quarter was $1.28 billion – a little under the Q3 2018 result of $1.51 billion – but the company is comfortably coasting above its forecasted $1.11 billion result. And, it couldn’t stop lauding the virtues of Call of Duty, a primary driver of the company’s economic success in the third quarter.
In October, Call of Duty Mobile boasted over 100 million downloads and sat comfortably at the top of the mobile app download charts in over 150 countries and regions. Activision mentioned that ‘monetization trends for battle pass and first seasonal event have been strong’ for the mobile game. Then, the soft reboot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launched on October 25 and was a smash hit, eclipsing FIFA 20 and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the PlayStation 4 digital downloads chart. Sell-through units for this game left Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in the dust, and the number of PC players rose by 50 per cent year-on-year.
And it will only keep on keeping on, with the monetised battle pass in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s not in the game at the moment; Activision said in its earnings call that it would launch ‘slightly later than originally planned’ in December. But, this battle pass will offer timed exclusive cosmetic content for each live season of Modern Warfare. Supply drops are no more, and players may be tempted by the battle pass where everything that is included is shown transparently before they buy.
‘With a strong content pipeline and momentum in mobile, esports and advertising, we are confident we will remain a leader in connecting and engaging the world through epic entertainment,’ Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick stated. Call of Duty Mobile and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare fit the bill, so it will be a question of whether these titles’ longevity will be enough to turn around the year-on-year losses for Activision.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
