Activision Blizzard reported a drop in earnings from 2020 to 2021 by 18%. This means that the company had just $2.49 billion in net bookings, falling short from the expectations of Wall Street.
In 2020, the company was able to achieve net bookings of $3.05 billion.
Call of Duty Franchise Didn't Perform as Well as Expected
According to the story by VentureBeat, this meant that certain power titles like the "Call of Duty" franchise did not perform as well as analysts have expected. Expectations in the company's Activision division, responsible for producing the propular franchise, were reportedly lowered.
One reason why analysts were too sold was because they noted that gamers might not be as excited to "return to World War II." It should be noted that "Call of Duty: Vanguard" is set in the World War II period of history.
This has led analysts to expect the title to sell fewer companies, especially when compared to other "CoD" titles such as "Cold War" and "Modern Warfare."
Company Missed Revenue Line by Just $300 Million
An analyst at Wedbush Securities, Michael Pachter, said in an email that the company missed the revenue line by $300 million, according to the report. In addition, this comes after a massive change in the industry, which includes Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $95 a share or $68.7 billion.
The acquisition was such as big news that it is said that it even triggered Sony to purchase Bungie for $3.6 billion as a result.
According to VentureBeat, the weak performance could have contributed to why Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard's CEO, wanted to sell the company. It is also being said that the company's failture to hire enough artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning help on top of traditional game developers was another contributing factor.
Developers have been Leaving Big Game Companies to Join Startups
A lot of developers were inspired by the game industry's boom that took place during the pandemic, which led them to leave their companies for startups that had a decent amount of cash from investors.
According to the story by GamePur, Activision Blizzard has already released its financial reports for 2021. Though the company has failed to meet Wall Street expectations, GamePur said that the company still had a "very successful 2021."
Microsoft Expresses Its Willingness to Work with Activision Blizzard to Fix Internal Issues
Despite the many problems that Activision has found itself in, an article by CNN details how Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the founder of inclusion consultancy firm ReadySet , ooks at the acquisition of the company by Microsoft.
According to Hutchinson, they are willing to "bring on this company that has a ton of cultural problems" and that Microsoft is willing to take Activision into the fold despite its many problems still be unresolved.
Hutchinson said that this was because "profit motive trumps those potential liabilities" to explain the company's efforts in acquiring Activision Blizzard.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
