Activision is planning to increase its development of mobile games. According to GameSpot, an earnings call with Activision president and chief of staff Coddy Johnson had some interesting revelations regarding Activision’s plans for future games. During the call, Coddy Johnson stated, “A third of our business is on mobile already. We have the largest mobile gaming presence in the west. So we want to build on that leadership position. We think it’s a foundation of strength to do that.”
Activision has one mobile game out already with Call of Duty: Mobile and another upcoming game Diablo Immortal, but according to the earnings call, the company has plans to adapt all of their franchises for a mobile medium. This means that it is possible World of Warcraft and Overwatch could see a mobile adaptation. This can be supported by Coddy Johnson’s statement that, “all of our franchises” are being considered for possible adaptation to a mobile market. Coddy Johnson stated that the reason for increasing the development of mobile games is because “The AAA kinds of games we make are ready to work on mobile because of the improving compute and graphics capability [of the mobile devices],”.
However, Coddy Johnson also stated that the company would only adapt games for mobile phones if it made sense to do so. “In terms of what we’ll make, you might imagine we’re looking at all of our franchises. We want to do it where it makes sense.” This implies that perhaps not all of Activision’s games will be receiving an adaptation for mobile phones.
According to GameSpot, Activision is thinking of releasing new mobile games under three brackets. The first bracket would “extend existing gameplay”. The second bracket would release games that are “reimaginations” of console or PC titles. The third bracket would focus on cross-compatibility between consoles, PC, and mobile phones. It is currently unknown what titles Activision will be adapting for mobile phones, however, the possibilities are myriad since they are looking at all of their franchises.