Though reports of weakening World of Warcraft usage have surfaced, expect a strong step up in MAU from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and a trend reversal at King. Further, the trend toward lower monthly active users likely abated for the fourth quarter with the strong summer/fall release slate that included: Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Battle of Azeroth and King’s Candy Crush Friends Saga. When Activision holds its 4 th quarter conference call on February 12 th look for further data supporting strong sales and engagement for Black Ops 4, despite recent industry concerns. Adding to the October and November pullbacks is recent news the Bungie studio is splitting from company and taking ownership of the Activision division’s Destiny IP. This bad press added to pressure on the stock during November. Both Blizzard’s core gamers and new media gaming commentators expressed derision over the inappropriateness of the franchise for mobile devices. Additionally, press reports following the call highlighted the continuation of the downward trend in monthly active users during the third quarter.Ĭoincidentally, alongside the conference call the company faced consumer backlash when the Blizzard division announced a mobile game for the Diablo franchise at their annual event. Though analysts have maintained revenue expectations for the fourth quarter following the November conference call, marginally weak guidance led to downward earnings estimates.
While the company did provide strong sales and engagement data for its key Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launch, some industry watchers lowered elevated expectations following the franchise’s latest release in October.
Though the broader technology market suffered during the fourth quarter, Activision Blizzard ( NASDAQ: ATVI) experienced outsized declines on the back of lowered expectations.
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