Activision announced the AAA experience as part of its namesake’s second anniversary, as Activision laid out its plans for the future of Call of Duty. The official blog post describes the mobile iteration of the free-to-play battle royale shooter as a game that’s “being built natively for mobile with cutting-edge technology.” This effectively means that Activision doesn’t intend to make cross-play available between the mobile and non-mobile versions of Warzone.
According to Activision, Warzone Mobile will exist “for many years to come.” The way that we see it, Activision is preparing Warzone for mobile phones so that it can co-exist independently with the sequel, Warzone 2, as it comes out next year. While Activision has made Warzone Mobile official, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the game become available for download anytime soon. Upon further sleuthing, Activision is still looking to fill multiple job openings for Warzone Mobile. It appears that Activision has assigned Warzone Mobile to Beenox, Digital Legends, Solid State Studios, and Demonware, which guarantees that the game will be in good hands for years to come. Activision’s decision to come late to the mobile party isn’t surprising, by any means. Warzone wasn’t released until the battle royale genre wasn’t already a couple of years old. Despite being one of the youngest battle royale titles around, the free-to-player shooter is now right up there among the most popular of them. Most estimates put Warzone as just right below Fortnite in terms of player count. We do not doubt that the mobile version of Warzone will have the same success. Speaking of mobile Call of Duty games, Activision technically already has one out. 2019’s Call of Duty: Mobile has a battle royale mode and is fairly popular. It remains to be seen what will happen to the 2019 game once Warzone Mobile comes out. In other news, Activision-Blizzard is still in the process of being acquired by Microsoft. The massive deal could have serious repercussions for both sides if it doesn’t fall through. Also, there are reports that the publisher is skipping its long-time annual release slate for Call of Duty games in 2023 in favor of two-year support for Infinity Ward’s turn at the helm later this year. If this is true, both Warzone Mobile and Warzone 2, as well as Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty game, create a three-headed prong that should help rake in billions in revenue for Activision Blizzard.
