The Name of Obligation machine can by no means cease. It should endlessly push ahead, via lawsuits, controversies, and layoffs. To cease would imply…nicely, we don’t know, as a result of it by no means has. And to assist hold the machine going, Activision now has over 3,000 human souls working tirelessly on the writer’s largest and most profitable online game franchise.
As noticed by TweakTown in Activision’s annual report back to buyers, the writer explains that greater than 3,000 individuals at the moment are engaged on the favored navy shooter franchise. This represents about 31% of its whole at the moment employed workers of roughly 9,800. Even wilder, which means near half of the roughly 6,800 devs at the moment working for Activision are getting used to maintain the Name of Obligation machine working. So many our bodies sacrificed to the altar of hit markers and gun skins.
It’s not shocking to listen to Activision is throwing this many individuals at Name of Obligation. The franchise has remained one in all its few reliably profitable video games, frequently promoting hundreds of thousands of copies yearly and bringing in billions of {dollars}. Final 12 months, the writer even moved its Toys For Bob studio away from growing Crash Bandicoot video games to flip it into yet one more assist studio for Name of Obligation Warzone. As of that change, seemingly each studio owned by Activision is, in some capability, growing Name of Duty content material or supporting Warzone-related tasks.
In the identical annual report, Activision says it’s “engaged on essentially the most formidable plan in Name of Obligation historical past” and that it hopes a return to the super-popular Fashionable Warfare collection will assist it get better from final 12 months’s stoop with Name of Obligation Vanguard. That entry underperformed in keeping with Activision, a uncommon instance of the machine stalling. Activision blamed the WW2 setting of Vanguard for its less-than-stellar gross sales, which is an odd excuse that appears to disregard the different massive incident that occurred final 12 months.
Kotaku reached out to Activision however didn’t hear again earlier than publication.
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Final July, allegations of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination on the firm grew to become public following an investigation and lawsuit by the California Division of Truthful Employment and Housing. Name of Obligation: Vanguard wasn’t formally revealed till August, a lot later within the 12 months than traditional for the collection, and the response from gamers and critics was extra subdued than prior to now, largely as a result of many weren’t certain the way to reply to the following massive promotional marketing campaign and online game launched by an organization accused of years of employee mistreatment.
Then, late final 12 months, shortly after Vanguard was launched, The Wall Avenue Journal printed a report immediately implicating a Name of Duty government in alleged misconduct on the firm. All of this did sufficient harm to the corporate to harm its worth and permit Microsoft to swoop in and start the method of shopping for up the writer.
So it appears greater than ever, Activision wants the Name of Obligation machine to maintain on working, even when it has to throw everybody and their household on the machine to do it. Name of Obligation can’t cease.
