Activision Reveals Call of Duty 2019 Will Have A Single Player Campaign
Activision Blizzard recently released their financial presentation for calendar quarter four, the end of 2018. While the company didn’t meet financial expectations, they appear excited for 2019, which includes a new Call of Duty title with a campaign.
Coddy Johnson, Activision Blizzard’s Chief Operating Officer, highlighted that although Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 sold better than its predecessor and remained the top selling game of the period by many metrics, sales dropped off more than expected in the second half of the quarter. Player responsiveness to in-game events was more muted than expected though apparently that hype picked up as the year rang out.
Johnson made a quick statement about the Bungie and Destiny situation as well, as Activision lost their rights deal for both the studio and the brand. The sale will obviously impact Activision Blizzard’s revenue for 2019, but on the whole the senior leadership seemed positive about the year ahead. Call of Duty will get more resource to deliver “more frequent content updates and events” across the franchise, and the company will use its model for the Overwatch League to create a city-based professional Call of Duty League.
While Johnson mentioned that the Diablo Series will get more resource this year for “several projects” including Diablo Immortal , Chief Financial Officer and President of Emerging Business Dennis Durkin later stated that the company “are not planning a major frontline release for Blizzard in 2019” — which means no surprise Diablo 4 to come later in the year.
Durkin went on to speak about Call of Duty 2019 , which we know nothing about so far including the final name. He described it as a “great step forward” that would “appeal broadly to both existing and new fans”, and “rooted in some of the franchise’s most important history”.
Later when taking listener questions, Rob Kostich said that Call of Duty 2019 would be “an amazing game” that would have a separate campaign to the multiplayer, which will be a relief to those that thought the franchise might step away from campaigns entirely after Black Ops 4 shipped without one. It will also feature “a huge and expansive multiplayer world”.
While nothing more concrete has been confirmed, there’s one last mote of Call of Duty news. Thanks to the success of Activision’s mobile publishing arm under King, Dennis Durkin announced that they will bring " Call of Duty to mobile with our partner Tencent". Exciting.