Activision Blizzard Sheds Light On Mobile Approach, Calls The Platform "A Real Priority"

The latest Activision Blizzard quarterly earnings call devoted a substantial amount of time to the mobile realm, with the company revealing the importance of mobile gaming in their future plans.

The company called the mobile market "a real priority" with "a lot of investment" and the hiring of "hundreds of mobile developers" underway. The goal, according to president and COO Daniel Alegre, is to have every major Activision Blizzard franchise on mobile devices.

"Mobile is the ultimate driver of reach with almost 3 billion smartphones worldwide forecasted to be 4 billion in the next five years," Alegre said during the call. "We are doing ourselves and our community a disservice if our games are not on those platforms, which is why mobile is so important to our strategy. The opportunity is crystal clear."

Alegre attributes that opportunity to the company's franchises having "appeal around the world" and being "particularly well-suited for mobile," though he does admit some franchises might see changes. "There might be several different ways a franchise can be represented on mobile," he says, "and there may be re-imaginations of an IP on mobile in addition to games that are more similar to a console or PC experience."

Alegre cites the acquisition of Candy Crush developer King as a huge boon to the company's mobile approach, saying they've "leveraged the learnings from King across the entire business; platform engagement, live ops, user acquisition, or managing game economies." He finished with a list of other mobile projects in the works, saying "[they] started with Call of Duty Mobile, [they're] following it up with Diablo Immortal, and [they're ]also working on a number of Warcraft mobile titles with some unannounced initiatives under way."

Activision Blizzard's push to mobile is not a surprise, as the same earnings call reported Call of Duty Mobile has been downloaded over 500 million times and made over $1 billion since its launch in 2019. Diablo Immortal, the next major mobile release for the company, was also confirmed for a global 2021 release.