Activision Blizzard has a huge cash cow: the brand “Call of Duty”. The model of the shooter franchise is now to be applied to its other major game series. This refers to Blizzard’s giant titles like Warcraft (WoW) or Diablo (Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal). But what exactly is this model supposed to look like?
This is what Activision Blizzard says: On February 4th, Activision Blizzard’s “Earning Call” took place. They reflected on the 4th quarter of 2020 and painted an even rosier future for investors.
One of the central sentences of the call was that Activision Blizzard is on the Path to “One Billion Players” is, the big goal of Bobby Kotick, the boss of Activision Blizzard.
To reach this magical number, they want to transfer the “model” of Call of Duty to their other major brands: This refers to Blizzard’s game series, Overwatch, Diablo, and Warcraft.
Kotick says about the “Call of Duty” model:
- The process always starts with inspiration and creativity
- They bring great games to all customers through Free2Play
- offers an experience on mobile phones
- regularly supplies the games with content and premium content
More Mobile, more Free2Play for Diablo and Warcraft
Which game series does Kotick have in mind? Kotick speaks of the 3 major franchises at Blizzard:
- A free mobile version with Immortal is supposed to be coming for Diablo. This is intended to make Diablo successful worldwide. Diablo 4 is on the “horizon”. They expect a lot from the game in the coming years.
- For Warcraft, Kotick announces a series of “free mobile Warcraft” experiences. These are meant to allow players to experience Warcraft in a new way. They are supposed to help maintain and expand the community of the MMORPG World of Warcraft.
- In Overwatch, they want to revitalize the community with Overwatch 2 and strengthen the player base on all platforms with “growth initiatives”.
From 3 billion-dollar franchises to 5 – Hello, Diablo
This is the goal: Activision Blizzard says that at the moment they have 3 game series that generated over a billion US dollars in revenue in 2020. These are apparently Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Candy Crush.
The goal is to bring two more franchises to that level in the coming years: They seem to have Diablo and Overwatch in mind.
One brand – as many games as possible
This is what it’s about: The model of Call of Duty, which excites Activision Blizzard, is three-pronged:
- With the annually released main part (2020: Cold War), they have a premium title that Activision Blizzard sells at full price
- With CoD Warzone, they have a constantly active free “Games-as-a-service” title that is continually expanded
- With CoD Mobile, they maintain a mobile spin-off that reaches a different audience
Here, synergy effects arise. The brand keeps growing, and they cover different markets. While “full-price titles” are popular in the USA, Europe, and among core gamers, mobile gaming is booming specifically in Asia, where not everyone has a console or gaming PC at home. Warzone then reaches casual players and others who are not regular Call of Duty players and for whom a “Cold War” is not an automatic must-buy.
In Warcraft, Activision Blizzard has tasted blood with WoW Classic and seen that having a second active game for Warcraft is truly worthwhile. However, the plan with “Warcraft 3 Reforged” backfired, as they sought to further expand the brand. Apparently, new mobile titles are now to come, which have been in development for ages.
For Diablo, we know that Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal are in development. Apparently, Diablo 2 Remastered is also to receive further support. Activision has even hired help for Blizzard.
Only for Overwatch is it still unclear how exactly Activision Blizzard wants to expand the franchise. It is only known that the team is working on Overwatch 2 which is supposed to have a stronger PvE focus than its predecessor. However, not much more is known yet.
New course from Activision leads to upheaval at Blizzard
Are there dissenting voices? This development, that Activision wishes for more games from Blizzard for their major brands, has been known for a long time from insider reports. Activision is allegedly pressing the gas, paying more attention to expenses, and demanding higher speed and efficiency from Blizzard. Blizzard is known for its philosophy “When it’s done” and traditionally wants to release games late, but polished. The new focus on results, efficiency, and speed has apparently led to some conflicts internally at Blizzard.
As such, many key employees of Blizzard have left the company in recent months, moving to their former boss, Mike Morhaime, who has opened a new studio.
Blizzard’s core fans have reacted rather skeptically to this new path so far. They apparently want a focus on the respective “main titles” of the game series. The announcement of a “mobile Diablo” at BlizzCon 2018 was received horrendously. Fans had wished for the announcement of Diablo 4.
Player asks at BlizzCon: Is Diablo Immortal an April Fool’s joke?
