With more folks turning to video games to pass the time during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, it did not take long for one of 2020 biggest games to emerge. Call of Duty: Warzone brought in millions of users as the franchise’s first foray into the Battle Royale genre. Reinvigorating the Call of Duty brand, the game has led to some staggering amounts of profit for publisher Activision, with the company reporting some big earnings in a recently released financial statement.
The Call of Duty brand has been a consistent performer for years, an FPS with big mainstream appeal, new releases in the franchise sell millions of copies annually. It is such a juggernaut that it is able to deflect criticism directed at the franchise and mitigate Metacritic user review bombing. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may have stumbled a bit out of the gate with fans, but it is still part of a very successful year for Activision.
The press release from the company covering financials of the Call Of Duty franchise says that “net bookings” for the last 12 months have eclipsed $3 billion. “Net bookings” is an operating metric that is defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally or physically in a period, including things like license fees and merchandise. Essentially this number represents all Call of Duty products out there, not simply game sales. The report also notes that this number is an 80% increase over the previous 12-month period, with games sales specifically up 40%.
As with any release meant to entice and keep investors, the one page document also takes time to talk up the future of the franchise. Promising continued support for the franchise, with new seasons of content, community events, and smooth integration of Black Ops Cold War into Warzone. That integration was supposed to take place on December 10th, but Activision pushed that back a week, with the Cold War/Warzone integration set for December 16th now.
Despite the delay, there is a lot of content being promised by developer Treyarch, including a fan favorite Black Ops 2 map making a return to multiplayer. A slight delay isn’t likely to cause too much grief among fans, or hurt the financial bottom line for Activision.
While Call of Duty‘s success this year is quite extraordinary, critique of Black Ops Cold War‘s not-so-subtle revisionist history has made waves online. While it may not be enough to derail the brand, with such a prominent spot in mainstream culture, Call of Duty could be alienating some fans with their narratives. For now however, the good times are rolling at Activision.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Activision
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