Activision-Blizzard has just released its financial results for the first quarter of 2022, and the account is not there. The company's turnover and net profit fell by 23,8% and 36,18%. But there is more worrying still.
Call of Duty, Activision's real goose, no longer attracts crowds. Or at least in much lower proportions than in previous years.
Call of Duty has the flag at half mast
If its quality as the most profitable video game franchise in the industry is not called into question, Call of Duty is losing players. Lots of players.
According to company figures, there are 100 million active daily (over the entire franchise). In the last quarter of 2021, the count was 107 million players, and we were talking about 150 million recruits in the first quarter of 2021. At a similar period, it is therefore a drop of 33,3% in the workforce.
The reasons for this lack of interest are manifold. First, Call of Duty: Vanguard, the latest opus, is selling poorly. The Battle Royale Warzone was plagued by major bugs and cheating issues, and directly impacted by a strike led by Raven Software employees, who demanded better working conditions.
It can also be seen as a side effect of the countless cases of harassment and discrimination that have tarnished the company's reputation for more than a year now.
Bad news to put into perspective
But if our tone is alarmist, the church should be put back in the middle of the village. Call of Duty: Vanguard remains the best-selling console and PC video game for the past 12 months in the United States. However, it is closely followed by Elden Ring in great shape, which had sold more than 12 million copies just three weeks after its release.
Also, and despite disappointing results, Activision-Blizzard is confident for the future. At the end of the year, the company is betting on a new Call of Duty opus which should be none other than Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the 2019 Modern Warfare remake, which is incidentally its best-selling opus to date (more of 30 million copies sold).
For the future? Some analysts are betting on a hiatus of at least a year in order to restructure the production forces working on the license. For the first time since 2005, Activision-Blizzard could "skip a year", as Ubisoft had once done for Assassin's Creed.
The difference being that, in the meantime, Activision-Blizzard will officially enter the fold of Microsoft, which bought it at the beginning of the year for the astronomical sum of 69 billion dollars. The shareholders of the company must also vote in favor or against the acquisition on Thursday.
On the same subject :
Call of Duty: no new game in 2023?
