Tag: activision
Activision Hires Queen Elizabeth II’s Former Lawyer to Lead CMA Appeal
Activision Is Making More Money On PC Than Consoles For the First Time
Activision’s latest financial report marks the third quarter in a row that PC outsold console, and there’s reason to believe the trend will continue throughout 2023. Activision attributes its 74% increase in PC revenue since this time last year to the success of Call of Duty and Overwatch 2, but it also specifically highlights higher revenues for WoW: Dragonflight and Diablo Immortal (two games that aren’t on console). Blizzard is currently the largest factor in the PC’s growth within Activision. While Blizzard games are only making about half as much as Call of Duty, 72% of that revenue is on PC and just 8% is on console. Call of Duty’s revenue is more evenly split: 59% console, 26% PC, and 15% mobile. Blizzard’s console audience could grow significantly when Diablo 4 launches in June simultaneously on PC and consoles (a first for the series).
Zoom out on Activision’s numbers, and you can see the PC is gaining ground in Activision’s yearly reports, too. Last year, the company recorded the smallest gap between console and PC revenue in recent history: just $100 million. That’s several hundred million less than 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017. If the year goes on like this, 2023 could be the year that the PC becomes Activision’s second-biggest platform behind mobile (Candy Crush continues to crush).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Activision is making more money on PC than consoles for the first time, and the gap is widening
Activision isn’t sure how long the Overwatch League and CoD League will last, says efforts to address challenges ‘may prove unsuccessful’
Activision will let you pay to make your Call of Duty guns sound like 2009
Xbox’s troubles started way before the latest Activision Blizzard setback
Xbox needs a win. I am not just talking about how Microsoft needs to come out swinging off the back of the immediate news we’ve seen this week, where the UK’s CMA blocked its Activision Blizzard acquisition. That has set the company back, sure, but it’s likely only going to be a bump in a very long, very contentious road. Xbox’s issue is bigger, and speaks more to the company’s long-term plans in the current generation than any of its ambitious acquisition overtures.
For a start – and you’ve probably heard this one before – there are few first-party games that have really captured the audience’s imagination. The first-party Xbox Game Studios had a painfully quiet 2022 thanks to a string of delays, the protracted and public decline of Halo Infinite, and the notable absence of Starfield (which was originally supposed to launch in November 2022).
And even the games that Xbox Game Studios has released on its home platform have got issues: Ghostwire Tokyo runs worse on Xbox, despite having an extra year in development for the console and having the Xbox team there to support the developers. Redfall, the upcoming exclusive that really should be advertising the power of the Xbox Series X (which is the most powerful console on the market right now, in theory) will be capped at 30fps at launch. What is going on? These games are supposed to be technical showcases – products designed to show off what the Series X can do for Microsoft. Instead, they’ve become laughing stocks; embarrassing stories trotted out by console war enthusiasts to get a cheap laugh at Xbox’s expense. And rightly so, frankly.
Phil Spencer Says Xbox Will Forge Ahead, Even Without Activision Blizzard – Report
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has reportedly reassured staff following the news of the block to the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal in the UK.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that the UK government’s Competition and Markets Authority had decided to block Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, due to cloud gaming concerns. The $69 billion deal has been in the works for months, but the CMA said that the purchase “would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come.”
According to Bloomberg and its sources, Spencer reportedly acknowledged the CMA’s decision in a meeting for division employees, saying it will slow the approval process but that Microsoft’s desire to pursue the deal hasn’t wavered.
CMA Says If Microsoft Acquires Activision, Game Pass Gets More Expensive
Microsoft’s Activision deal is on life support because cloud gaming still sucks
Will the UK’s decision be a self-fulfilling prophecy?