Activision Blizzard “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/ “> Activision Blizzard announced plans to launch the Call of Duty game” another strong prize “in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The news was revealed by CFO Dennis Durkin during the publisher’s fourth quarter earnings conference call on Thursday.
It is unclear which studio will make the next entry in the series, which had alternate development tasks between Infinity Ward “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/activision/infinity-ward/ “> Infinity Ward, Treyarch “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/activision/treyarch/ “> Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games” href = “https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/ activision -blizzard / activision / sledgehammer-games / “> Sledgehammer games for several iterations until 2020, giving each team a three-year creation cycle.
Activision “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/activision/ “> Activision revised its plans for the 2020 Call of Duty game after a dispute between the main joint studios Sledgehammer and Raven Software “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/activision/raven-software/ “> Raven Software, putting Treyarch in charge of the 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare tracking” href = “https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-modern-warfare/”>Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” href = “https: // www .videogameschronicle.com / games / call-of-duty / call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war / “> Black Ops Cold War, released two years after its previous game, Call of Duty: Black Ops by 2018 4 “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-4/ “> Black Ops 4.
Sledgehammer said in May 2020 that he was working on several projects. The studio was founded in 2009 and is best known for the Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (2014) and WWII (2017) titles.
Activision Blizzard Entertainment “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/activision-blizzard/blizzard-entertainment/ “> Blizzard said during its earnings call on Thursday that the Call of Duty franchise generated $ 27 billion in lifetime sales since launching in 2003.
The number “makes it one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time,” said President and COO Daniel Alegre.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/bobby-kotick/ “> Bobby Kotick also said that Call of Duty attracted more than 250 million players in 2020, against 70 million in 2018.
Probably driven by the popularity of the free Call of Duty Warzone games “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-warzone/ “> Call of Duty Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-mobile/ “> Call of Duty Mobile, the brand“ has sustained more than 100 million monthly active players ”for the fifth consecutive quarter (from 40 million in 2018).
Call of Duty premium unit sales grew by more than 40% year-over-year in 2020, with a continuous “strong shift” to digital downloads, helping the franchise reach annual net bookings of “approximately double the level of the previous year”, said Activision.
Black Ops Cold War was the best-selling game of 2020 in the United States, followed by Modern Warfare, marking the 12th consecutive year in which a Call of Duty game was ranked as title # 1, according to market research firm NPD Group “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/npd-group/ “> NPD Group.
The first season of Black Ops Cold War and Warzone content had the most Battle Passes consumed since the introduction of the new game system in late 2019, Activision Blizzard said on Thursday.
Given the success of the franchise, Activision Blizzard said it plans to apply the Call of Duty framework to its other brands, combining multiplatform, free-to-play and premium experiences. In line with this strategy, it announced that several free-to-play Warcraft mobile games are in development.
The latest Black Ops Cold War update released this week, adding new zombies and multiplayer content, new modes and featured playlists, as well as gameplay improvements, bug fixes and weapon tuning.
The main attraction of the update was the new zombie map Firebase Z, set in the jungles of Vietnam, and the multiplayer 6v6 Express map, which was originally included in Black Ops 2 and takes place in a high-tech train station.