Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Publisher "Keenly Aware" Of Battle Royale's Popularity

The immense popularity of games like PUBG and Fortnite: Battle Royale is not lost on publishing giant Activision Blizzard, it seems. Investment first Oppenheimer recently met with executives from the video game giant and came away feeling positive, due in part to the company reportedly having its eye on the battle royale genre.

Activision management explained to the research firm that it is "keenly aware" of the popularity of the battle royale trend and how other publishers have benefitted from jumping on board, according to Wall Street Journal writer Sarah Needleman (via IGN).

"The investment firm says Activision is keenly aware of how other game publishers have recently benefited from releasing titles [in the] popular 'battle royale' genre," the report said. According to Needleman, Oppenheimer's report also noted, "Management reminded investors that the company is a faster follower."

The suggestion here is that Activision might get involved in the battle royale phenomenon somehow, though there is no word on if Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will have a battle royale mode. Whatever the case, it's exciting to think about.

It's no surprise to hear that Activision is keeping an eye on popular video game trends. It would be weird if they weren't. And for that matter, we would expect all other video game publishers to be keeping tabs on the genre to potentially inform their own future decisions.

Activision isn't the first major video game publisher to respond to the battle royale phenomenon. Take-Two, which owns Rockstar Games, said it is "really interesting" to see PUBG and Fortnite rise in popularity. But at the same time, Take-Two explained that it wants its studios at Rockstar and 2K to work on original ideas instead of being "derivative" and following a trend.

The success of PUBG and its impact on video games is undeniable. The game has been one of gaming's biggest success stories of the past year (PUBG launched one year ago this month), and it inspired other popular battle royale games like Fornite and others. It will be interesting to see if other publishers follow along with battle royale modes in their own games, or create new experiences altogether in the battle royale genre.

As for Black Ops 4, the military shooter arrives on October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. That's about a month earlier than past entries in the series. Activision hasn't said why it moved the game's release up, but doing so gets the game a two-week headstart on Red Dead Redemption 2 (October 26).