Activision Blizzard have been having a hard time of it lately. News of Diablo 4’s troubled development, or of the backlash against Diablo Immortal, or of Bungie splitting and getting to keep Destiny, or of apparently impending layoffs, have created an air of uncertainty around the company. However, one could always have argued that as long as the company’s investors are happy, it’s all fine for the publisher on the business front.
Well, it doesn’t sound the investors are currently too happy either, because according to The Wall Street Journal, Activision’s stock has fallen by a staggering 6.8%, which extends its losses this month so far into double digits on a percentage basis. It’s unclear what exactly investors are unhappy with, but Activision may need to rethink its decade-plus old approach to how it approaches games publishing going forward if this keeps up.
Activision can at least take solace in the fact that even Take-Two saw its stock contract by 3.7%, and this is the company that published Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that shipped 23 million copies, last quarter. Investor panic must just be something that’s in the air.