Activision Blizzard is admitting that Name of Obligation: Vanguard didn’t meet expectations. In its 2021 annual report, the corporate acknowledged that it believes that the World Conflict II setting and lack of innovation over earlier titles had been the causes. Vanguard’s year-on-year gross sales had been down 40% within the UK in comparison with Name of Obligation: Black Ops – Chilly Conflict, and hype for the 2021 launch has been noticeably decrease throughout social channels.
Name of Obligation: Vanguard offered considerably fewer copies than its predecessor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfFU-vxbzd0
The Activision Blizzard annual report doesn’t give precise gross sales numbers, but it surely does point out Name of Obligation: Vanguard as not assembly expectations a number of instances all through the doc. On condition that this admission is on the second web page, we are able to assume that it did a lot worse than anticipated:
Whereas Name of Obligation stays probably the most profitable leisure franchises of all time, our 2021 premium launch didn’t meet our expectations, we imagine primarily as a result of our personal execution. The sport’s World Conflict II setting didn’t resonate with a few of our neighborhood and we didn’t ship as a lot innovation within the premium sport as we’d have appreciated.
Apparently, Activision Blizzard additionally thought Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2 and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time underperformed as nicely. They had been cited, together with Vanguard, as being a part of why the corporate’s web income and working revenue for 2021 had been lower than in 2020.
A minimum of now we all know why Vicarious Visions was restructured as Blizzard Albany, and Toys for Bob was assigned to be a Name of Obligation: Warzone help studio. It’s unlucky as a result of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2 was the fastest-selling sport within the franchise, and Crash Bandicoot 4 was extensively praised by reviewers and followers.
Activision Blizzard says it’s aiming for the upcoming Name of Obligation: Trendy Warfare II (to not be confused with Name of Obligation: Trendy Warfare 2) to be extra progressive than its predecessor. We’ll discover out if that’s true when it launches later this yr.
In different information, Activision Blizzard is getting sued by yet one more celebration, and Ubisoft is combating off one other hostile takeover try.
