Destiny 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Publisher “Keenly Aware” of Battle Royale Popularity

Activision has always been a company to exploit a trend as much as possible – see it’s constant iterations of Guitar Hero. So it’s perhaps unsurprising to hear that the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Destiny 2 publisher recently informed investors that it’s “keenly aware” of the Battle Royale genre’s success.

Dow Jones Newswire (via WSJ’s Sarah Needleman) reports how the publisher spoke to investment firm Oppenheimer. It said it was aware of how other publishers benefited from Battle Royale titles. “Management reminded investors that the company is a faster follower.”

That last part is especially interesting. It teases that Activision is already taking steps to enter the genre, competing with the likes of Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. How this will fit into the company’s busy schedule of DLC packs, multiplayer updates, timed events, microtransactions and so on remains to be seen. Perhaps it could be a spin-off, much like how Fortnite: Battle Royale is separate from the PvE-focused Save the World.

As it stands, there are plenty of other Battle Royale titles coming like Fear the Wolves from ex-STALKER developers, The Darwin Project (which just hit Early Access), the 400 player Mavericks, Paladins: Battlegrounds and so on. That’s not counting rumours of Red Dead Redemption 2 having some kind of Last Man Standing mode.

Regardless, Activision has Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 releasing on October 12th with a special reveal event planned.

Hmm, which Activision Blizzard game do you think might get a battle royale mode first? pic.twitter.com/ACGR8I3FUh

— Sarah E. Needleman (@saraheneedleman) March 12, 2018