Activision did not have a good second half to 2018. And things aren’t looking too bright in 2019. As Activision loses another finance executive. Specifically, Amita Ahuja left her position as a chief financial officer of the company. She’s the second executive to leave the company after Spencer Neumann.
The reasons for her departure aren’t confirmed and weren’t shared by her in any way. Though the most likely reason that people suspect for both executives leaving is the poor financial results from last year. I mean it took an old Blizzard game (Warcraft) and a mobile game (Candy Crush) to save the sales that they did. What with Warcraft’s latest expansion.
Other than that, Destiny 2 completely dipped in comparison to what Activision had hoped for it to accomplish. Forsaken not doing well at all as Destiny 2’s first major expansion season pass. Activision’s solution (for some reason) was the addition of more microtransactions. Must’ve stopped listening to their consumers I suppose. Destiny 2 had a fair bit of content initially but it became evident how much was taken out and placed in an expansion pack. That being Destiny 2 Forsaken. A frustrating tactic that Destiny 1 also employed. Releasing the game in highly priced “chunks” instead of just releasing a completed, enjoyable game.
Then the whole Diablo Immortal fiasco took place. Which caused a dive in Activision’s financial stocks since people lost faith in the company’s ability. It makes sense considering the negative reception of Diablo Immortal. Which was in summary, a mobile game that tried appealing to PC players. A cheap shot of sorts for players of the Diablo series that waited very long for a continuation. The cherry on top was Mr. Wyatt’s infamous “Do you guys not have phones?” line.
Black Ops 4 didn’t have as bad reception as Destiny and Diablo. The Black Ops Battle Royale mode dubbed “Blackout” gaining popularity pretty quickly. It wasn’t as popular as previous titles in the series but still managed to accomplish a good bit.
Activision Blizzard doesn’t really have any major titles planned for this year either. Mostly riding on the coattails of last year’s success. Which wasn’t really much. Starting to see why the executives left yet?
The negativity and backlash to the company also grew over the previous year. After the Diablo panel had that “April’s fool” line. Even Dominoes jumped on the bandwagon to throw some shade at Activision Blizzard.
