"Bringing more franchises to mobile is Activision Blizzard's biggest opportunity"

[Jshadowhunter]

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...y_says_COO.php

“We need to make sure that we’re enabling our franchises on the billions of mobile devices that are available right now. That’s by far our biggest opportunity and we’re investing meaningfully to capitalize on this and to take all our franchises to mobile over time.”
- Activision Blizzard president and COO Daniel Alegre comments on its future mobile aspirations

Mobile is, so far, going well for Activision Blizzard but its current dabblings on the platform, which include Call of Duty: Mobile and its 300 million worldwide downloads, are only the beginning.

Top Activision Blizzard execs talked about their vision for the massive company’s future on mobile in a recent call with investors, exploring a desire to bring more of its flagship franchises to the platform and expand its current dealings into new regions.

While the company sees the value in emerging platforms like cloud-based streaming services, Activision Blizzard’s first priority is aiming its development efforts at platforms with proven effect. Mobile, for instance, is where the company sees its biggest opportunities, with Activision Blizzard president and COO Daniel Alegre expressing interest in bringing “all our franchises to mobile over time.”

Currently, Call of Duty: Mobile is at the front and center of Activision Blizzard’s mobile expansion, though the company has the added benefit on the mobile front of including Candy Crush-maker King in its portfolio of studios.

On the Call of Duty: Mobile front, Activision president Rob Kostich says that the game has crossed 300 million worldwide downloads in the year or so since it first debuted. The in-game celebration of that launch, according to Kostich, saw the strongest week in terms of gross bookings in the game’s history, and the hope is that’ll continue to trend upwards.

“In terms of future growth, we do still see strong potential for Call of Duty: Mobile. China obviously we believe can become a significant contributor to our overall franchise revenues,” says Kostich. “And we talked about how the title has been approved and now it’s in final testing. So again, we expect to see it soon. We think can have great impact in the region."

“And it’s really not just China,” he continues. “For example, Mexico and Brazil are top five markets for us in terms of both installs and revenue. And so we see a big opportunity to further expand geographically in other markets through mobile through increased marketing and accessibility initiatives over the coming quarters.”

More BS-ery from Bobby "the Devil" Kotik. Anybody who chooses to side with him can go to hell, that includes the CCP.

[Orange Joe]

Guess I'm going to hell. Like it or not breaking into that market WOULD be the best thing for them.

[Draco-Onis]

Guess I'm going to hell. Like it or not breaking into that market WOULD be the best thing for them.

Guess I am taking a ride along because I agree, as a gamer I hate this but this is where the money is. The problem really is the lack of regulation in that market since it's gaming companies becoming gambling ones nowadays.

[Calfredd]

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...y_says_COO.php



More BS-ery from Bobby "the Devil" Kotik. Anybody who chooses to side with him can go to hell, that includes the CCP.

When is Daniel Alegre spelled Bobby Kotick?

[Gaidax]

How dare they!!!!111

In 10 years from now all these silly boxes we have wired in our basements will start disappearing off the face of the Earth.

They are right looking forward to the future.

[Jshadowhunter]

When is Daniel Alegre spelled Bobby Kotick?

Where do you think he's getting his directive from?

- - - Updated - - -

How dare they!!!!111

In 10 years from now all these silly boxes we have wired in our basements will start disappearing off the face of the Earth.

They are right looking forward to the future.

Ye, because everybody will throw the top of the line boxes that are always gonna be the pinnacle of evolving modern gaming technology away for 7x14cm sized screen which you cover with your fingers. That'll totally happen.

[XDurionX]

It's not bullshit, it's the truth. Mobile market is as big as pc and consoles combined. Just because you don't like it, doesn't make it wrong.

[Edge-]

Where do you think he's getting his directive from?

The board of directors and shareholders, and his fiduciary responsibility to investors to generate a profit?

I mean, 'ol Bobby Kotick is shit, but he's not the lone nexus of evil here.

[StayTuned]

You should not forget that this doesn't mean "no more PC, only mobile" or even "mobile first" at all.

It just means "we will also invest in mobile". It's just another market with potential for them.


You guys just don't get it. AcBliz doesn't own gamers anything. They don't develop or design anything for you. They make games that somebody will buy enough times to satisfy the expectations of their share holders.

You are just being lucky that for some time since Activation bought Blizzard, you (PC gamers) were the main market and they targeted you primarily. Now you will need to share that attention with the mobile gaming market.

If you don't like it, don't buy their games. But I can promise you, they'll just stop caring at some point entirely about you if they see enough money in being mobile exclusive. Unless you give them too much shit though, and continue to buy their stuff (granted, if it's any good), then there will be desktop and mobile.

Everything else would be just financially irresponsible and bad business practice from their side.


And that's coming from someone who wouldn't use Diablo Immortal as a torturing device.

[Gaidax]

Ye, because everybody will throw the top of the line boxes that are always gonna be the pinnacle of evolving modern gaming technology away for 7x14cm sized screen which you cover with your fingers. That'll totally happen.

It will, these led lit Frankenstein machines we're sporting will be nothing more than your gramps' ol' analog radio receiver down the road collecting dust in the museums.

At some point not far away at all 90% of gamers in the world will need nothing more than a screen and soon after not even that.

[Jshadowhunter]

The board of directors and shareholders, and his fiduciary responsibility to investors to generate a profit?

I mean, 'ol Bobby Kotick is shit, but he's not the lone nexus of evil here.

Well, that's true. The old guard that put love and care has long since left. All we have left now are money-grabbing exploitative goblins.

[Edge-]

Well, that's true. The old guard that put love and care has long since left.

They never existed and that's a romanticized view of "how game development used to be!". It's always been about the money. Always. We just weren't aware of how transparently obvious that was when we were younger.

[StayTuned]

It will, these led lit Frankenstein machines we're sporting will be nothing more than your gramps' ol' analog radio receiver down the road collecting dust in the museums.

At some point not far away at all 90% of gamers in the world will need nothing more than a screen and soon after not even that.

Well let's not jump the horse before it's even born, shall we?

Cloud gaming is fine and all, but still you'll need a PC for a good portion of the foreseeable future. Your hardware will shrink, but only so much. We're already approaching the physically (im)possible sizes of our hardware. We need more than just "smaller" hardware now. We need new kinds of architecture and software go with it all.

Until that is ready for the mass market worldwide, we will need our classical desktop PCs for at least another 15-20 years.

At some point, internet + monitor will be enough. But that's just hardware I am talking about. The classic desktop PC game experience will remain unchanged until we have internet-to-brain virtual reality. In 500 years or so.

[Jshadowhunter]

They never existed and that's a romanticized view of "how game development used to be!". It's always been about the money. Always. We just weren't aware of how transparently obvious that was when we were younger.

Are you saying that OG blizzard came into existence for the SOLE reason of making money and not making money while doing something they loved and enjoyed?

[Shadowferal]

Well, playing games on a tiny screen has no appeal to me.

[StayTuned]

Are you saying that OG blizzard came into existence for the SOLE reason of making money and not making money while doing something they loved and enjoyed?

How about both?

What, you think making games for mobile isn't something a developer could enjoy?

[Edge-]

Are you saying that OG blizzard came into existence for the SOLE reason of making money and not making money while doing something they loved and enjoyed?

Are we talking small, non-corporate Blizzard? Sure, when they were more akin to a small indie studio. Sure, when they were largely doing whatever they wanted because there was no shareholder pressure or anything.

But make no mistake, it was still about the money and post-Vivendi that became more apparent. Especially when pretty much everything not WoW pretty much went dark for years while they focused all their efforts on their primary cash cow. Now they have more strict corporate oversight, and they don't have the kind of endless money that they used to that allowed them to pretend budgets don't exist (which is bad management anyways).

Plenty of folks still make money doing something they enjoy. Hell, I'd argue most enjoy making games which is why they stay in game development when their skills could earn them more money in other sectors. The difference is that their "old" way of doing things doesn't still work, and shareholders are speaking up. Blizzard didn't "die" (quotes because they're not dead, just in spirit) when they merged with mean 'ol Activision (see: WotLK being the biggest success/highest popularity for the title coming after that merge). They "died" when they went corporate and public, because they lost that ability to have total control over their game development and started answering to investors.

That ATVI, who have openly stated that they want to hire 2K more employees to meet their needs (we can all clown on them for firing thousands in recent years before this announcement). Do you think those aren't mobile developers and shit? Do you think they're just gonna pull the WoW team, Sledgehammer, and maybe the Hearthstone team off of working on their main projects and dump them on mobile? Hell, Blizzard already works on mobile (sup Hearthstone) and D:I isn't even being developed internally.

[Endus]

You should not forget that this doesn't mean "no more PC, only mobile" or even "mobile first" at all.

It just means "we will also invest in mobile". It's just another market with potential for them.

Plus, it's their "biggest opportunity". They're already well-invested and present in the PC market. What they're saying is that mobile offers the greatest potential to grow their markets; they can't expand further into PC when they're already at the top of the heap there.

Companies exist to make money. Not to provide fanservice (unless that makes them the most money), not to serve niche interests (again, unless it makes them the most money). They're gonna chase the almighty dollar because that's the entire point of a company. They aren't starving artists making art for the sake of art, and it's bananas cuckoo that anyone thinks otherwise.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Oh no a company is going to make something that doesn’t directly pander to me as a pc user what ever will I do to stop this devil spawn?

[Afrospinach]

You should not forget that this doesn't mean "no more PC, only mobile" or even "mobile first" at all.

Do you really believe that?

They are going to forsake their core customer for a "me too" play which has been the bane of the industry for the last decade or so. A dollar today and nothing tomorrow.