During a recent earnings call with investors, Activision Blizzard revealed that it has chosen to delay both Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, two of the company’s important and highly anticipated upcoming releases. While neither game had any sort of release window, this at least means that they won’t be out in 2022, which isn’t exactly good news for fans or investors.
In fact, following the announcement, stock prices in Activision Blizzard dropped significantly by over 14%. As Dexerto points out, the company’s stock has been steadily dropping since June, no doubt in part due to the lawsuits it has been struck with, starting with the one from the State of California. It alleges that Activision Blizzard has allowed a toxic workplace to fester within the company, with multiple instances of abuse, harassment, and gender discrimination taking place. Despite Activision Blizzard’s best efforts, its reputation still hasn’t recovered.
This doesn’t mean the company is any serious financial trouble. The drop in stock prices is hardly favorable, but Activision Blizzard also stated that its quarterly revenue was $2.07 billion. It even made more than $1 billion in Q3 2021 (July – September) in microtransactions alone.
Plus, it’s optimistic about the following quarter, with Call of Duty: Vanguard releasing in only a couple of days and its integration with Call of Duty: Warzone to bring some major changes to the battle royale. Chief operation officer Daniel Alegre added that while Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 will release later than planned, the company will still offer a substantial amount of content next year.
Aside from the next mainline Call of Duty (which is rumoured to be a sequel to the 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot) and additional content for Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard, there’s currently no telling what else Activision Blizzard has in store for 2022. Especially since nearly all of the company’s studios are working on the Call of Duty series in some shape or form, leaving other franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon thoroughly neglected.
There’s also no telling what sort of effect the State of California lawsuit will have on the company in the long-term. Its reputation has certainly been damaged, with numerous employees having either left or been fired in the past few months. This includes Jen Oneal, one of Blizzard’s co-leads, who will be stepping down at the end of the year, although she states that her departure has nothing to do with any of the current legal issues.
Source: Dexerto