Despite the crusade against microtransactions and loot boxes in 2017, Activision Blizzard’s bottom line is better than ever. In its Q4 2017 financial report, the company announced that it made $7.16 billion in revenue for the entire year, thus setting a new record. The real kicker is that of this amount, $4 billion was earned from in-game purchases.
Keep in mind that Activision’s owns Candy Crush and its developer King. That being said, with the mobile studio being valued at $2 billion, that still means the other $2 billion was generated from titles like Call of Duty: WW2, Overwatch and Destiny 2. It should be interesting to see how the company handles microtransactions going forward though, especially with loot boxes coming under scrutiny after the launch of Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Nevertheless, Activision has big plans ahead. Destiny 2, for instance, will be receiving a major new expansion in September while another DLC releases in May along with a new season of content. Said “season” will include new items that can obtained from the game’s cash shop though the developer is revising how players will obtain them with the upcoming Crimson Days event.
