With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic everything in the games industry from releases to events, it’s a given that larger publishers like Activision-Blizzard could face issues. Considering the number of big releases currently in the works like Blizzard’s Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 along with the rumored Call of Duty: Black Ops reboot, delays could be coming. CNBC recently spoke to CEO Bobby Kotick who revealed that things were currently on track for the time being.
“Most of the things that we have in production and development are on track for now. I think we’ll have to really reassess that in a month and in three months.” This most likely applies to something like Call of Duty, which typically releases in October/November each year. However, Overwatch 2 is likely to be affected as well especially given rumors of its launch this year.
Kotick also outlined what the company was doing to help its employees as they work from home. “We’ve been doing things like encouraging our employees to upgrade their home broadband to the highest bandwidth service and we’re paying for that, we had equipment available for take home so everyone in the software development, art or animation functions, we made equipment available so they had the newest most secure devices, but I think it’s still too early to know what the consequences [on] development will be for the next year or so.” Kotick has also encouraged employees to contact him directly regarding any health concerns.
Blizzard revealed Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 at last year’s BlizzCon but didn’t offer release dates for either. The company indicated that this year’s convention could be cancelled but time will tell if that happens. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.
