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Activision Blizzard's (ATVI) Modern Warfare II Crosses $1B

Zacks Equity Research
·4-min read

Activision Blizzard’s ATVI Modern Warfare II, released on Oct 28, crossed a $1 billion sell-through within 10 days. This has set a record for being the fastest in franchise history.

The new release that introduced deep multiplayer modes, maps, playlists, technical innovations and an evolved Special Ops, which allows players to explore hot zones with a teammate, has received traction as players have already played more than 200 million hours across Playstation, Xbox and PC platforms.

As this new Call of Duty edition makes new records, it sets a driving momentum for the company’s growth and further motivates them to deliver the best experiences for all its players.

Activision’s Other Game Franchises That Gained Traction

The global launch of Overwatch 2 on Oct 4 also seemed to have gained traction. More than  35 million people played the game in its first month, with the average daily number of players more than double that of its acclaimed predecessor.

Diablo Immortal expanded its global reach with a strong launch in China in July. The title reached the top of the download charts and has ranked in the top ten highest-grossing mobile games in China since its launch.

The Diablo series is also launching its fourth installment in 2023. The title will support cross-play and cross-progression across platforms and will also engage live service and provide ongoing storytelling.

Activision has also released its upcoming games pipeline, which is expected to add to its existing strong portfolio.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, scheduled to release on Nov 16, is a free-to-play battle royale video game with enriching experiences that brings in new features like extraction mode, gulag changes and new swimming/aquatic combat.

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Activision is also set to launch Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile in 2023, which is a free-to-play battle royale mobile game with up to 120 players, allowing them to share social features like friends and chat channels. Already 20 million players have pre-registered for the game on Google Play.

 

Activision Blizzard, Inc Price and Consensus

Activision Blizzard, Inc Price and Consensus
Activision Blizzard, Inc Price and Consensus

Activision Blizzard, Inc price-consensus-chart | Activision Blizzard, Inc Quote

However, for the third quarter of 2022, net bookings of Activision Blizzard have declined 3% year over year. The total revenues also fell 14% to $1.782 billion.

 


The decline in video game spending due to the resumption of work from office and outdoor entertainment has affected the company’s top-line growth. Per VentureBeat, which cited the NPD data, consumer spending on video games was down 9%, 5% and 4% year over year in July, August and September, respectively.


The company is set to be acquired by Microsoft MSFT for $95 per share in an all-cash transaction.

However, the acquisition is facing an in-depth probe in the United Kingdom, which has entered the second phase of review with the Competition and Markets Authority as they believe that this acquisition could hurt competition in gaming consoles, subscription services and cloud gaming if Microsoft refuses to give competitors access to Activision's best-selling games.

Activision To Face Stiff Competition

Shares of Activision have gained 6.9% year to date against the Zacks Consumer Discretionary Sector, which fell 38.4%.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company faces competition from Take-Two Interactive TTWO and Electronic Arts EA.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.


Take-Two recently launched Rollerdrome, a third-person action shooter. The company’s 2K and Visual Concepts also launched NBA 2K23, the next offering from its industry-leading NBA series. The company expects fiscal 2023 revenues to jump 73.3% year over year.

EA has released a strong slate of games for its players. Its year-end line-up includes the racing game, Need For Speed Unbound (Dec 2), while 2023 awaits the horror genre Dead Space (Jan 27) and action and adventure game, Wild Hearts (Feb 17).


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