After the success of games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Hearthstone, it would seem pretty apt that Activision Blizzard would look to bring their other franchises to mobile. In it’s Q3 2020 earnings report, the company’s investors expressed their interest in bringing all its franchises to the mobile gaming space.
When asked about the company’s views on platforms beyond next generation consoles. Daniel I. Alegre, President and Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard said that the company was “really well-positioned to take advantage of this expansion in platforms and also the associated economics.” Alegre further added that Activision Blizzard was “making sure: that it’s enabling its franchises on the billions of mobile devices available. “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. That's really, really important for us,” he noted
The list of franchises owned by Activision Blizzard includes Call of Duty, Warcarft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, The Tony Hawk video game series, and one of the newest IPs, Sekiro. This of course, does not include the franchises owned by King, which is already primarily focused on creating mobile games like Candy Crush Saga.
While Call of Duty is obviously amongst the biggest franchises owned by Activision Blizzard, there are some very notable franchises from Blizzard's side of things. This includes series such as Warcraft and Diablo. Robert A. Kotick, Chief Executive Officer & Director at Activision Blizzard notes that Blizzard has “dedicated creative talent” that is focused on delivering multiple mobile experiences in the coming years. He also added that it’s franchises were “well-suited for global, mobile, console, and PC gaming audiences. And we're determined to deliver compelling mobile experiences for both existing fans of our franchises and the hundreds of millions of players around the world who haven't yet played our games.”
Diablo: Immortal was a game that was announced back in 2018. However, saying that its announcement was poorly received by the hardcore PC gaming audience would be a massive understatement. However, Alegre notes that the game is shaping up to be quite good with a positive response from testers. He said, “amongst multiple Blizzard mobile titles under development, Diablo Immortal saw a hugely enthusiastic response in internal testing in the third quarter and will soon enter external regional testing.”
Of course, Call of Duty: Mobile’s popularity remains strong on mobile. Kotick noted that Call of Duty: Mobile has been downloaded over 300 million times worldwide and has become the highest grossing new game in the US App Store since its launch in October last year. “By expanding to mobile, we have brought in tens of millions of new players in countries far beyond our traditional audiences.” Back in June, Sensor Tower reported that the game had crossed the 250 million downloads mar