Activision Blizzard 🎮 - ATVI

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Currently -45% since all time high, hence a very interesting one to consider. Not that the gaming industry is going anywhere, especially with AR and VR development.

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They make Call of Duty, I don’t play it personally but you can’t avoid it as a game. Brand awareness is huge. Gaming is becoming bigger than the film industry. And I agree with you AR/VR call, the industry will certainly grow so it would be great to be able to select individual companies to gain exposure

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Thank you for all for your votes! We’ve now launched US stocks which means that Activision is included in our Stock Universe :video_game:

Feel free to create a new #investing-and-markets topic & share your thoughts about Activision’s future with the community :speech_balloon:

Remember when Elon Musk would share his love for Overwatch on social media?

Here he is talking about Blizzard’s games and other stuff. “Generally Blizzard is great stuff… There’s Heartstone, also from Blizzard.”

How does he find time for video games?

The Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch league just wrapped up its 2nd season—it’s quite a franchise and is attracting millions of :moneybag: and billionaires’ interest, as more people are streaming eSports via Twitch and YouTube.

They are reported going to launch a CoD League too:

Activision Blizzard crowned the San Francisco Shock as its second Overwatch League champion on Sunday in front of a sold-out crowd at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center arena.
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It was the first competitive gaming league structured as a global city-based franchise that imitated traditional sports leagues, with each of the 12 owners reportedly paying $20 million for a slot. Most of those slots were bought by the owners of traditional sports franchises, including the Kraft family.
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And that same enthusiasm for the growth of esports drives the publisher ahead of its Call of Duty esports league launch in 2020. Much like its Overwatch League, Activision’s Call of Duty league will also be built on a city-based franchise that will feature a home-and-away system with 12 initial teams. ESPN reported that the buy-in for that league was $25 million per slot, though the publisher never confirmed the number.

Source - https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/29/activision-blizzard-crowns-san-francisco-shock-as-overwatch-league-champs.html

Not sure why the CNBC author said StarCraft 2 “collapsed”—Activision Blizzard’s SC2 has World Championship Series—if you have ever streamed or attended Blizzcon in Anaheim, it’s quite a spectacle. Perhaps it is because not many people are buying the game any more. The SC2 multiplayer universe is alive and well and Google’s DeepMind is involved in SC2 with its awesome AI agent called AlphaStar.

SC2 payouts:

Source - WCS 2019 Details Revealed — StarCraft II — Blizzard News

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Activision Blizzard shares are down over 5% this week which has coincided with a PR backlash regarding a hearthstone (a blizzard game) eSports event.

One player at the end of a match put on a mask imitating that of Hong Kong protesters and spoke in support of Hong Kong. In response blizzard has issued the player with a 12 month ban from hearthstone and removed all the prize money in the tournament that was owed to him. Despite quickly cutting to commercials, blizzard has also stated they will not be working with the broadcasters of the stream in the future.

Blizzard have pointed to their terms of service in participating in the Hearthstone tournament as a reason for banning the player:

Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms.

There has been some pretty significant backlash from the gaming community and blizzard employees in response to this. The hashtag #boycottblizzard was recently trending on twitter and the reddit r/blizzard page has been full of people expressing their concerns and reporting that they have deleted their accounts.

I’d be interested to hear people’s take on this, especially if they are blizzard customers themselves. My personal opinion is that this will unlikely to make a significant impact in the stock in the longer term despite being a short term PR catastrophe. It is also worth pointing out that Activision’s Call of Duty mobile reached 100 Million downloads in its first week since launching smashing any previous mobile game records.

I’m a customer of Blizzard and own a few Blizzard shares.

The participants of the competition would have signed up to rules and regs so I think Blizzard are right to pull the prize because of breach of contract. Winners aren’t allowed to use the stage for political agenda, even if positive.

People are only pointing the finger at China because of the HK thing.

Would they be pointing the same finger at China had the guy supported some other political cause, eg No to Brexit, which I’m sure would have resulted in the same Blizzard action?

My shares are still showing as positive, I must have bought them when they were quite cheap!

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Anyone playing the new CoD? Damn, it’s good…

image

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Activision is a buy for me after the popularity of the new modern warfare and cod mobile however anecdotal that may sound.

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Anecdotal is really valuable I think, especially with gaming and entertainment. You can’t really quantify the ‘this game is amazing’ vibe, at least in between quarterly earnings anyway.

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Big first few days for COD.

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CoD MW is the first game i’ve been excited for in years, it’s brilliant. I imagine will bring them huge profits.

Has anyone played it yet?

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Yes… I’m addicted! Best BR I’ve played!

Yes but I prefer the standard multiplayer. Don’t enjoy Battle Royals that much.

Curious to see their Q1 earnings and if the various lockdowns have had a substantial impact or not.

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When are these figures published?

@userfy_123 The earnings call is on 30th April.

For what it’s worth, video gaming’s already existing ascent has been likely bolstered by COVID-19. “Earnings are forecast to grow.”


(source)

It’s another question whether that’s already priced in.


(source)

CNN stock price forecast, so we don’t only look at SimplyWallStreet’s valuation:


(source)

Activision launched Call of Duty: Warzone battle royale on 10th March, and it attracted 6 million global players on the first day. It has now over 30 million users. Gaming is so popular, it is straining our global internet infrastructure, so gamers are asked to choose a “reasonable” time to play.

Anyone holding this share?

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I’ve been holding a few shares and recently bought some more when it dipped, mostly for the long term.

I’m always been bullish for the long term of both Activision and TakeTwo, and I think this lockdown period will have accelerated the growth trajectory of the gaming industry as a whole - many people who weren’t gamers before are now using it as a means of socialising and I feel this trend will continue even after the lockdowns are lifted.