Activision has announced a couple of things, both of which are good.
First and foremost, the end of their fourth quarter resulted in billions in revenue . Secondly, the multi-billion dollar Call of Duty franchise will now be on a three-year cycle. With quite a few Activision titles outselling competitors, I don’t think they’ll be in trouble any time soon.
Activision can say thanks to their top titles Call of Duty: Ghosts, Skylanders, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Storm, and World of Warcraft, for the $1.5 billion in revenue. WoW has increased its subscribers from 7.6 million last year, compared to the current 7.8 million people. The entirety of the Skylanders franchise has given them $2 billion over its lifetime.
Looking ahead
In the upcoming year Activision is publishing the highly anticipated game Destiny. To accompany the supposed billions of dollars it will bring in, Polygon quoted CEO Bobby Kotick saying “at least three potentially groundbreaking new free-to-play franchises: Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm, and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty Online” will contribute too.
Now that Activision has bought itself from Vivendi, they’ve also announced the very popular Call of Duty series will now be treated to a three-year development cycle. Treyarch and Infinity Ward currently alternate releases with a two-year cycle. Adding new studio Sledgehammer, this allows for more time to polish each iteration and hopefully add some much-needed innovation.
