Right now, Fortnite is simply dominating. Season 6 just arrived; several new bundles have been introduced; and Epic Games has some big plans for its Battle Royale shooter in the months ahead. But there is a competitor that could give it a run for its money this holiday season, and it’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
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Based off the success of Activision‘s recent Blackout beta, there’s good belief that the forthcoming sequel could have an impact on the gaming community.
A recent article from Barrons suggests that Activision’s stock will go through the roof when the game comes out in a few weeks. Piper Jaffray’s Michael Olsen noted, “What do you get when you take the largest annual gaming franchise on Earth and combine it with the most popular new game mode? We believe the answer is earnings per share upside.”
He’s speaking stocks mainly, but the impact from sales should really be something. Olsen recently bumped up the estimate for copies of the game sold from 21.5 million to 23.5 million, believing that Blackout will make all the difference.
“Gamer and critical feedback on Blackout have been favorable,” he said. “We believe the Street has underestimated the potential for collective Call of Duty franchise revenue.”
Of course, Fortnite isn’t likely to lose too much traction, since it’s still set up on a free-to-play basis, compared to the $60 entry fee to play Black Ops 4. (Not to mention that Fortnite is available on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, which won’t be getting BO4.) But there’s no question that the addition of Battle Royale could shake things up nicely for the publisher. (And who knows where this will leave PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which already lost a good chunk of its audience to the Fortnite community.)
Of course, players get a nicely rounded package with their money spent on Black Ops 4. Along with Blackout, they’ll also be able to check out traditional multiplayer features, along with a number of Zombies campaigns that take them from ancient Rome to a doomed cruise liner to World War II, with even more campaigns possibly being planned down the road to fill in for the missing single player story this time around.
It’s too soon to tell just how successful Black Ops 4 will be, but we expect things to be very busy in the Battle Royale market between that and Fortnite. We’ll let you know how sales come along.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will release on October 12 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
