Everyone loves to hate on massive publishers, but it's hard to deny how many beloved video games those companies are actually responsible for. And while Activision-Blizzard has certainly taken actions worthy of drawing the ire of gamers, it appears that it's regaining some confidence, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned.
Activision-Blizzard's stock has grown by more than 20% since August 14th, largely due to the recent release of World of Warcraft Classic and Overwatch's upcoming Nintendo Switch port, both of which bolster user bases and open new lanes for monetization. This has done a lot for investor confidence, making it one of the primary reasons the company has been doing so well lately.
Activision-Blizzard had a particularly bad Winter last year when the company's stock price was nearly cut in half between October and mid-February. However, Activision-Blizzard has an incredibly strong footing this time around. The Switch port of Overwatch is set to release on October 15th, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will land on PC and console on October 25th. This sets Activision-Blizzard up for an exceptional holiday season, as the two games don't share too much of a fan base overlap, meaning they won't directly be competing with one another.
Plus, World of Warcraft Classic has been performing exceptionally well. It became the most-viewed game on Twitch shortly after launching and has remained high on the list since then, currently clocking in at 240,000 views at the time of this writing. All three of these factors combined explains why investor confidence is currently so high, and it seems pretty likely that the growth trend will continue for the company— that is, assuming neither Call of Duty nor Overwatch experience catastrophic launches.
Of course, there are still valid reasons that gamers might not be too pleased with the company, despite its strong release calendar. Activision-Blizzard recently underwent vast layoffs, cutting massive portions of the company in an effort to save money, despite claiming that it had had a "record year". This bred discontent among many corners of the gaming community, with many upset that so many workers lost their jobs while the CEO claimed millions of dollars in salary.
Source: CNBC