The merged companies of Activision and Blizzard recently published their Q3 statistics following the start of November. While they did meet their quota and slightly exceed it, that was mainly due to the success of Warcraft and Candy Crush. Specifically, they brought in an income that was slightly above the forecast they had originally planned.
At the same time, however, the income was less than what they had in 2017’s Q3. Activision Blizzard brought in $1.512 billion, which was down from $1.618 in Q3 2017 but above the company’s forecast of $1.490 billion.
Onto the finer details. World of Warcraft was indeed a carrying force for Blizzard Activision’s Q3 success and surpass of the forecast. What with its Battle of Azeroth expansion, which added a new raid and plenty of fresh content to the Blizzard giant.
Its fanbase on its own base game was massive enough, so it’s not a surprise that a brand new expansion would only add to the success. The supporting carry for the company’s Q3 success was the Candy Crush Saga which Activision had acquired from King Digital. The mobile game market is one of the fastest growing gaming industries nowadays which Blizzard Activision has recognized. Reeling in a big chunk of their Q3 revenue from a mobile game.
On the negative side, Destiny 2 remained stagnant throughout the Q3 timeline. This is attributed to the Forsaken DLC not doing well. Forsaken was a massive expansion to Destiny 2 which brought new weapons, Raids, planets and weapons/gear. As well as a new game mode called Gambit, which combined PvP and PvE.
The story focused on a redemption story of Cayde-6 did not do well for Activision at all. Falling below the forecast and perhaps being the reason behind Destiny 2 being made free to acquire for a brief time period last month. It’ll be hard for Bungie to revive and throw Destiny 2 back into the fray.
Investors are not confident in Activision Blizzard’s Q4 future either, as stocks take a plummet. This is despite the sales being dependent on Black Ops 4, a Call of Duty installment. A franchise that’s been a money-maker in the past being a driving force for the upcoming Q4 revenue. This drop in investor confidence could be because of the forecast not being as high as they wanted, which would’ve shown a lack of confidence in Activision itself, should that have been the case.
Destiny 2’s stagnation in the past Q3 could be due to the way the game paces its content and provides it to the user. It’s one thing for a game to provide a full experience and then add more content to the game, but then it’s another to feel robbed of a proper story, just so it could be sold separately as a cash grab.
A good example of added content is the Witcher 3, which gave us a complete story, and then proceeded to add two more packages of gameplay and plot, at a fair price. With Destiny 2, the base game itself can be a bit of a tedious grindfest at times. The story of its predecessor was memorable for how much it lacked in the gameplay. The case wasn’t very different this time, seeing as how the apocalyptic main story of 2 ended as abruptly as it began. Once a more interesting addition to the story was introduced, centered around the fan favorite character, Cayde 6. It was sold as a DLC expansion, kind of a cash grab no?
Hopefully, Destiny 2 does manage to pick itself back up and improve on what Activision failed to accomplish with the first title. Since at this rate, the game once again appears to be relying a bit too much on its post-launch expansions.
