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Look out Fortnite, Call of Duty joins the fight for domination of free-to-play battle royale video games market
- Free-to-play video games accounted for 80 per cent of the US$120 billion digital games market in 2019
- Call of Duty: Warzone, a massive open world battle royale game, is taking on Fortnite
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Activision is not just dipping its toes into the popular battle royale video game category. The Call of Duty publisher is jumping in, fully committed to take on current favourites Fortnite and Apex Legends.
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The new game, Call of Duty: Warzone, which just launched on Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One and PC, “is the most ambitious environment we have ever built in the franchise’s history,” said Patrick Kelly, who co-heads Infinity Ward, the studio that developed the game with support from Raven Software. Activision this week announced the game, which lets console and PC players play together, with a post on its official Call of Duty blog.
Free to play online, and now available to download Warzone lets up to 150 players compete in a last man standing combat game.
“We brought a number of twists to battle royale,” said Kelly. “I do think the world you play in is going to be undeniably unique. For one thing, we are initially going to roll out with 150 players, when you are typically seeing 60 to 100. Actually, I can tell you we are already playing with 200 players. We are going to release that a little bit later.”
There’s no secret to why Activision would want to join in the free-to-play battle royale competition. Free-to-play games accounted for four out of every five dollars spent in the US$120 billion global digital games market in 2019, according to research firm SuperData, a Nielsen company. Fortnite alone accounted for US$1.8 billion in 2019, SuperData estimates.
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