Activision Blizzard officially debuted its brand new Call of Duty League last week. Many fans found its addition of traditional sports-inspired city-based competition, among other things, to Call of Duty esports to be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a success. In light of Call of Duty League's opening weekend, CNBC analyzing Activision's lofty goal♑s for the new league and the importance of its success to future undert🉐akings.
Powering the potential for success of the CODL is the enduring popularity of the Call of Duty franchise. The newest entry in the series, , ended up becoming the number one best-selling video game of 2019. This success is especially notable considering that, like clockwork, a new Call of Duty game (at a full AAA price) is released every year. Simply put, the reach of Call of Duty is major and wide-ranging.
Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, has stated that a successful Call of Duty League could ultimately become a significant source of revenue, both directly, and in helping promote current and future Call of Duty games. Within the league, media rights and corporate sponsorships can be sold, while heightening the profile of Call of Duty would also drive purchases🌸 of in-g💖ame add-ons and DLC.
However, getting to that point may prove to be a challenge. While Overwatch League has so far been a success by some metrics - season 3's expansion from hosting the majority of its games in a single studio in Burbank, CA to competition being spread across homestands all over the world being one of them - Activision has also reported that neither playerbase nor overall revenue have grown significantly in Overwatch since the Overwatch League began. Furthermore, viewership has dropped and some popular members of the broadc𒆙asting team h🅠ave departed from the league.
The biggest obstacle to the success of CODL, according to Will Hershey, the CEO of esports-based Roundhill Investments, is the blisteringly fast pace of professional CoD gameplay. That said, there's a general issue with longevity in esports is turnover in the video game industry. Which is 🦹to say that, compared to traditional sports, the amount of new video games released each year mean that gamers' interest in one ga😼me is often limited by the release of a newer, shinier game, which in turn can impact interest in esports.
However, Call of Duty may be immune to this in a way that Overwatch and other games may not be. Call of Duty has been a very popular yearly release for a very long time, and should it continue to be, a vibrant esports league very well may serve as a nice compl🀅ement.
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