Activision Blizzard is feeling the heat from the recent surge of battle royale titles. During a recent investor Q&A, the Call of Duty publisher was asked how Fortnite specifically has impacted the performance of key titles, and admitted it’s felt some”near-term impact.”
Those on the call didn’t talk specifics, but it’s still interesting to hear that a giant like Activision is feeling the affects of the battle royale craze.
Fortnite and its main competitor PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds have become household names in almost no time at all, finding large followings on PC, console, and mobile.
Battlegrounds led the charge initially, becoming the first Steam title to hit 2 million concurrent users while crossing 30 million players worldwide. The game eventually made its way to Xbox One, where it amassed an audience of 3 million players, and is now finding its feet on mobile with the help of Tencent.
Fortnite, meanwhile, passed 10 million users last October, and managed to attract a staggering 3.4 million concurrent players in February this year. Epic also decided to bring its uber-popular title mobile: a decision that saw the game pull in revenues of $25 million during its first month on smartphones.
Inspired by that success, plenty of companies have tried to hop aboard the battle royale bandwagon, and in a rather teasing retort, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick implied the publisher might very well be next.
“When we see people innovate in an interesting and impactful way, we are very quick to figure out how to capture inspiration from innovation,” commented Kotick. “And so we as a company, in our DNA, in our culture, when we see things that appeal to our audiences, we are very good at being inspired by those.”
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2018