Activision Blizzard President believes $60 games will still exist

No matter how successful free-to-play titles like Fortnite become, the traditional $60 business model will persist. That’s what Activision Blizzard president and COO Collister Johnson said.

During yesterday’s Q1 financial review, Activision Blizzard discussed the impact of titles like Fortnite on the company’s revenue and player count.

With Fortnite enjoying a steady position in the gaming market, Johnson was asked if Activision Blizzard would reevaluate the effectiveness of its $60 business model for games. He argues that different business models can exist in parallel without affecting each other:

Right now, right now, we have a ton of business models, free, paid monthly, buy games, DLC, microtransactions, all of which are highly successful. [Chúng tôi] believe that $60 games will still exist.

Opponents of this idea may argue that not all business models are created equal. Take DLC and Microtransaction (in-game transactions) for example, which have caused a lot of controversy in new titles, overshadowing the true experience of the games. More importantly, these microtransactions affect the balance in the game, or “pay-to-play.”

CEO Bobby Kotick acknowledged Fortnite’s existence in an upbeat tone, emphasizing the general benefits of the industry thanks to Fortnite’s massive success, “The game is attracting new people of all ages and genders and it are helping to make video games a popular form of entertainment.” Since there is no game that competes directly with Fortnite, the key players at Activision Blizaard don’t feel threatened by the Battle Royale series.

Financially, Activision Blizzard reports hopeful numbers for Q1 revenue, with Fortnite having little impact on their bottom line. With that said, chief financial officer Spencer Neumann admits Acitivsion BLizzard has “felt the impact of Battle Royale.”

There are few companies more powerful than Activision Blizzard trying to defend their business model against Fortnite, with massive successes from enduring franchises like Diablo and World of Warcraft, not to mention FPS titles. Overwatch. What we don’t know yet is how modern business models, in this case free-to-play, will affect the market.

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has said he wants to add a Battle Royale mode to Overwatch since last year, but we still don’t have any information on when.

Source: Activision Blizzard