During 2018, Activision’s mobile game revenue was only $19 million. Compared with Activision Blizzard’s $7.3 billion subscription revenue last year, it’s only a slap in the face
However, the company’s executives are very firm in saying that in the coming months or even years, “mobile games will be our priority.” However, foreign media Pocketgamer recently issued a document saying that “the mobile phone strategy of Activision Blizzard is in a dilemma.”
It should not be overlooked that Activision Blizzard spent $5.9 billion in 2015 to acquire King’s mobile game developer King, and the company’s revenue continues to grow
Globally, mobile games have become the largest game market in the industry, but more than three years have passed. It seems that the sky-high price mergers and acquisitions brought to Activision Blizzard, and only King’s mobile game revenues continue to grow. Of course, Blizzard’s CCG game Hearthstone’s revenue during the 2018 period was $222 million, including some mobile game revenue
Entering the Chinese market.
In the 2018 Blizzard Carnival, the company’s reaction after the announcement of Diablo: Immortal proved that it is possible to anger fans with the existing IP free mobile game. Of course, what really dissatisfied the core fans is that there is no new work in the PC version
Blizzard producers said, “Don’t you have a cell phone?”
Activision Blizzard handed over the rights to the mobile game of Call of Duty and Diablo to Tencent and Netease in China, hoping that these two companies will enable these IPs to flourish in the mobile game market.In fact, another company, Zhixingtong, has also used “Call of Duty” as a strategy game in recent years. “Call of Duty: Global Action” has also started Android testing since the end of 2018
In addition, Activision also licensed the Skylander IP to Korean publisher Com2uS, which also developed the RPG game “Skylander: Ring of Heroes”
Of course, considering that mobile games are already the highest revenue platform in the game industry, and the Asian market has the highest proportion in the mobile game field, Activision Blizzard has handed over the IP to China and other Asian companies. People are surprised
However, the feedback of “Diablo: Immortal” mobile games in the European and American markets is also slightly worrying. These hand-made mobile games designed specifically for the Asian market can be recognized by European and American players. Especially considering the difference between the payment habits of the East and West mobile game players, what kind of balance should the Activision Blizzard do?
Activision and Blizzard’s hand-walking dilemma.
The past few years have been extremely unfavorable for Blizzard. In addition to the big change of management, many senior developers have chosen to leave for different reasons. Considering the history of PC game development in the past, Blizzard may be one of the most conservative teams in Activision Blizzard’s free mode and mobile game system. The company’s previous “Warcraft”, “StarCraft”, “Diablo” even “Watching Pioneer” has never done a mobile game before
In this case, Blizzard’s best candidate for a mobile game may be “Heroes of the Storm”, which is not very good. For this PC game manufacturer, “Storm Hero” is almost abandoned. Not only cut the team, but also canceled the league, plus the free mode setting, may be the most suitable IP for mobile games
Of course, in the European and American markets, Dazu IP actually has successful cases, such as “Star Wars: Galaxy Heroes” and “Marvel Strike Force” are all worthy of mention
For Activision, entering the field of mobile games is also a challenge. Surprisingly, this company actually started mobile games a long time ago. In addition to the Call of Duty application, it also released Call of Duty: Black Action Zombies, which was released and sold in 2011. The $6.99 mobile game is still in operation. In the past few years, Activision has released more than 20 mobile game apps through internal and external studios, including 6 Call of Duty mobile games
Even so, Activision wants to succeed in the mobile game platform through “Call of Duty”, but still has to make greater efforts in the gameplay. The past failed products have proved that the direct porting method does not work. Therefore, overall, considering the dilemma of the two teams of Activision and Blizzard, there is still a lack of effective strategies to truly use the tour as a priority
It should be noted that the mobile game market is highly mature, and it is getting harder and harder for new jobs to enter the head of the income list. Even the previous consecutive successes Supercell had to cut a lot of projects
The most obvious advantage is probably a huge cash flow of $2.5 billion. Whether it is a research and development masterpiece or a large-scale merger and acquisition, Activision Blizzard has this strength