Activision Blizzard First Quarter 2022 Financial Results - Faltering CoD Sales, Upcoming Warcraft Mobile Announcement

wowhead.com:

Activision Blizzard has released its first quarter financial results for the year of 2022, announcing a declined quarterly revenue of $1.77 billion, narrowly missing analyst estimations of $1.8 billion, citing robust growth at King offset by poor Call of Duty: Vanguard performance and a lack of major Blizzard releases. In positive news however, Diablo Immortal was announced to release on June 2nd with PC cross-play, while internal testing for Diablo 4 is already underway, public testing of Overwatch 2 beginning tomorrow on April 26th, and a Warcraft mobile announcement in the coming weeks. Due to the pending acquisition by Microsoft, the financial results have been presented without the usual conference call, and the the report lacked a personal quote from CEO Bobby Kotick or CFO Armin Zerza, though the business highlights cited increased legal fees as a result of the pending merger with Microsoft and cited the hiring of several hundred new developers. Additionally, the report acknowledged recent news in the approval of an $18 million settlement with the EEOC, converting 1,100 QA workers to full time, and the appointment of Kristen Hines as DE&I lead.

Overall financial performance declined year-over-year, primarily reflecting lower results for Call of Duty and product cycle timing at Blizzard Entertainment, enough to offset otherwise robust growth at King. Although not offering future projections, the news of Diablo Immortal's launch, Diablo 4 internal testing, Overwatch 2 public testing, an upcoming Warcraft Mobile announcement, and teasing CoD 2022 as the most advanced experience to date all suggest renewed growth over the remaining year.