Activision-Blizzard CEO Also Interested in Battle Royale Games

Remember how we posted earlier that Blizzard was hiring people for an unannounced competitive FPS game? And remember how I suggested that it was overwhelmingly likely that it would be a Battle Royale game based on comments by Overwatch’s director and common sense? Well now there’s even more evidence that we’ve got a new Battle Royale game brewing, and it’s Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

Activision, which owns Blizzard, I remind you.

Speaking with Bloomberg (and as reported by PC Gamer), Bobby Kotick had this to say on the subject of Fortnite:

“Fortnite is definitely a lot of competition right now. It’s been a really important catalyst in attracting new gamers to gaming.”

The same article points to Activision’s current success (and hilariously puts PUBG behind Fortnite, as if it had popularized the genre) but also suggests that Activision is looking to emulate the success of Fortnite for itself, despite how well Overwatch and World of Warcraft have been doing. This was reinforced during an earnings call, where CFO Spencer Adam Neumann had this to say:

"[The success of Fortnite] is highlighting the ability to successfully bring immersive gaming experiences like battle royale to mobile in both Western and Eastern audiences, or markets. And that's really encouraging as we think about our future mobile opportunities, and our growth opportunities generally as gaming becomes increasingly mainstream."

The CEO was quick to add:
 

"When we see people innovate in an interesting and impactful way, we are very quick to figure out how to capture inspiration from innovation. We as a company, in our DNA, in our culture, when we see things that appeal to our audiences, we are very good at being inspired by those."

Now, Activision is also the folks behind Call of Duty, and it’s sort of an open secret by now that Call of Duty will be getting a Battle Royale mode sooner rather than later. But still, Activision is all about putting its many eggs in one basket, so asking Blizzard to do the same hardly seems unreasonable.

Let’s see if I’m right, though.