In the financial report 3/2020 from Activision Blizzard, the company highlights the success of its new model for Call of Duty. The current Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is statistically between 300% and 1000% more successful than the last one, depending on the statistics. But does this only bring advantages?
This is the unfair comparison: In an earnings call, Activision Blizzard compared the figures of Call of Duty in Q3 2020 with those from Q3 2019 (via seekingalpha). This is an unfair comparison:
- In Q3 2019, the only current CoD title was “only” Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from 2018, which experimented with the battle royale mode “Blackout”
- In Q3 2020, there was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), which was significantly advanced, along with the two incredibly successful free-to-play titles Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone
In 2020, Call of Duty has 10 times more active players on PC than in 2019
These are the success figures from Activision Blizzard: Therefore, the figures from 2020 brutally dwarf those from 2019:
- With 111 million, there are 3 times as many monthly active players as in 2019 – an active player is defined as someone who logs into a Call of Duty title at least once a month
- On PC, the number of active users has increased tenfold – the gain is therefore primarily from PC
- Modern Warfare had the highest sales of any Call of Duty ever, with two-thirds sold digitally
- With in-game sales, Activision Blizzard earned 4 times more on PC and consoles than in the previous year’s quarter
- The new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold will now be shown to a “much larger community” than a year ago, Activision Blizzard is pleased
Is Activision Blizzard now facing the Ubisoft trap?
What is the catch? This very “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” could become a problem for Activision Blizzard. Because the great figures of Call of Duty in 2020 indicate a new situation:
In previous years, Call of Duty was practically dead in Q3. Everyone was waiting for the new game to come out, and the anticipation was huge. It could create hunger for something new and hype.
In 2020, Call of Duty, as Activision Blizzard itself shows, is still alive. There is still something to eat. The hunger and hype for the “new Call of Duty” are absent or at least more muted than before.
This is a new situation for Activision Blizzard: It has never been like this before.
In 2019, Ubisoft bitterly felt what it is like when you develop and improve titles for a long time and then simply bring out “new parts in the franchise.” They experienced a pretty nasty shipwreck with this tactic.
The games The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint flopped, because they were too close to The Division 1 and Ghost Recon Wildlands, which Ubisoft had cultivated and improved over the years. Ubisoft painfully analyzed and admitted this at the time.
Therefore, Ubisoft changed their release plan in 2019 and wanted to completely rethink their strategy. They realized:
- those who improve and develop existing games over the years, earn money from them, and truly celebrate their success
- have difficulty selling fans a new part that is “somehow the same, but different and better” than the previous one
It could be that Call of Duty with “Cold War” gets into a similar situation.
MeinMMO expert Sven Galitzki is a good example of the growing hunger for a new Call of Duty being smaller in 2020 than in previous years. In an opinion piece, he explains why he can’t get as excited about Call of Duty: Cold War as he could about earlier titles:
That’s why I’m more indecisive about buying CoD Cold War than ever
