Activision did not reveal anything new about the status of "Overwatch 2" or "Diablo 4" during its quarterly earnings call today, but the company is looking to the future, including more frequent game releases and an increased focus on live operations that will require significant new hiring over the next couple years. He gave notice of very big plans.

"Looking ahead, the demand for our content has never been greater," said Mr. Huang. Especially in the face of increased competition from Chinese companies and platform providers, we continue to strengthen our investment in creative and development talent, which will allow us to better serve our players."

"From the beginning of 2020 through the end of next year we intend to hire over 2000 developers. We plan to triple the size of certain franchise teams compared to the size of those teams in 2019, and we have an aggressive hiring plan around the world, including new studios and major expansions in Poland, China, Australia and Canada."

Activision COO Daniel Alegre reiterated this commitment in later comments, "With our strategy to increase game content and frequency and double our live operations, we must and We recognize that we must."

Although no specifics were given, it is reasonable to assume that the focus on more frequent content releases and live services, and the talent needed to deliver them, is primarily driven by the massive success of Call of Duty: Warzone. Activision said that free-to-play and mobile have "transformed the franchise," more than tripling the average monthly user base of the entire franchise over the past two years and pushing premium sales of Black Ops - Cold War to levels "well above" those typically seen in the first quarter of this year. . above" the levels typically seen in the first quarter of this year,