Activision-Blizzard 1st Quarter Conference Call

by Its_Immanis - 9 years ago     show comments

On Wednesday May 6th, Activision-Blizzard had their quarterly conference call for shareholders for the first quarter of 2015.

For simplicity’s sake I’ll break this down by property.

Hearthstone

• With the addition of mobile device availability, Hearthstone’s player count is now above 30 million players.
• When the mobile version launched, Hearthstone held the number one spot for game downloads in 25 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia.
• Sales for Blackrock Mountain (the second expansion) exceeded sales of the first expansion (Curse of Naxxramas) by over 40%.
• Work on the next expansion is already underway.
• Usage is not broken down by platform since it is a shared ecosystem (players use the same account on mobile and PC).

Diablo III

• Testing for the Chinese version of the game started recently.
• 3 million players joined the open beta test.
• Chinese players access the base experience for free, with additional content available via addons priced at $32 and $64.
• Diablo has already sold more than 1 million units in China.

Starcraft II

• The closed Beta test for Legacy of the Void has begun
• This expansion introduces Archon mode, which allows two players to share control of a single army.
• Legacy of the Void will be a standalone expansion which will not require players to purchase Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm.
• Season 1 of the World Championship Series has concluded, with Season 2 underway. This season will conclude in June in Toronto.

World of Warcraft

• The first content update was released, adding new content, Twitter integration, and more.
• The second major content update was recently put on the Public Test Realm.
  • This update should bring additional content which appeals to players of various playstyles.
• Warlords of Draenor brought back more players than any previous expansion, demonstrating players will return with the right content offering.
• The token system was introduced which will not demonstrate results until Q2, but many players have already been using the service actively.
• Monthly subscriptions peaked at approximately 10 million subscribers at the launch and currently sit at 7.9 million subscribers.
  • This number is expected to remain stable or grow with addition of the WoW time for gold system.

Heroes of the Storm

• Over 11 million signups for the closed beta test which began in January.
• Launch date announced of June 2nd.
• Thousands of players participated from 460 schools in the Heroes of the Dorm tournament.
• Finals for the event were broadcast live on ESPN, the first time an eSport was broadcast live on the network.
• This event showed great potential as a spectator sport.
• Optimism is high for this game, the monetization curve is expected to start strong and demonstrate growth.

BlizzCon 2015

• Announced for November 6th and 7th in Anaheim, CA.
• There will be a lot to talk about in the months ahead as well as in November.