But Activision is anticipating lower initial sales than Black Ops 4.
Activision has established that 2019’s Call of Duty game will feature a campaign. The news comes via Activision Blizzard’s latest quarterly earnings call, during which the publisher confirmed it was sacking approximately 8% of its employees.
New Activision president Rob Kostich explained 2019’s Call of Duty is set to feature “an entirely new campaign, a huge and expansive multiplayer world, and some fun co-op gameplay.”
Returning CFO Dennis Durkin added that the game would be a step forward for the series, but also “rooted in some of the franchise’s most important history.”
2018’s Call of Duty Black Ops 4, developed by Treyarch, did not feature a traditional single-player campaign. 2019’s instalment will come from original Call of Duty developer, Infinity Ward – the studio behind Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2, plus Infinite Warfare, Ghosts, and the Modern Warfare trilogy.
While Activision reported that Call of Duty was the number-one selling console franchise worldwide for 2018, Durkin said the company is anticipating lower Q4 sales than Black Ops 4, conceding, “Call of Duty units are down year-over-year in our outlook.”
The layoffs at Activision Blizzard are estimated to be around 800 people and come despite Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick confirming the company’s financial results for 2018 “were the best in our history.” According to Activision the layoffs are occurring in non-game development areas of the business.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.
