Activision Blizzard reported quarterly earnings today, and the company said that the trailer for Call of Duty: WWII has more than 10 million views. It also said that last week’s revelation of the game was the most-watched livestream in Call of Duty history.
Activision’s Sledgehammer Games is making this year’s Call of Duty game, and they’re taking it back to its roots in the Second World War. Activision will publish the game on the consoles and PC on November 3, 2017.
Speaking at our GamesBeat Summit 2017 event, Sledgehammer cofounders Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey said they feel like Call of Duty: WWII is a personal passion project for the employees in their studio.
In the single-player campaign, you’ll play as soldiers in a squad in the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division, known as The Big Red One or The Fighting First. The division saw a lot of action throughout the war, starting in North Africa in Tunisia. It moved on to Sicily, Normandy, Aachen, and the Ardennes, the site of the Battle of the Bulge.
Meanwhile, Activision said it had 48 million monthly active users in the first quarter, down year‐over‐year primarily due to expected softness from last year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare release. Infinite Warfare took the franchise into science fiction, and gamers didn’t really respond well to that.
Though early, initial pre‐orders for Call of Duty: WWII are off to a very strong start, Activision said. While Activision said that the number of viewers topped 10 million, the YouTube video shows 14 million views. That may mean that people are viewing the trailer multiple times.
Activision and Bungie also expect to release Destiny 2 on September 8, 2017 and welcome PC players into the Destiny universe for the first time. Response to the Destiny 2 reveal was very encouraging, and pre‐orders are off to a very strong start, the company said.
Activision expects to release a new content offering for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 fans, Zombies Chronicles, on May 16, 2017. The remastered collection of the franchise’s most beloved Zombies content will be available first on PlayStation 4.
“We expect the community to grow with Call of Duty: WWII,” said Thomas Tippl, chief operating officer at Activision Blizzard, in an analyst call.