A financial analyst believes that Treyarch‘s next Call of Duty game will continue the Black Ops line.

Activision Blizzard‘s stocks are in a quite good shape, but an analyst, Cowen & Company downgraded them after nine years (!) due to „a combination of worries.” The company believes that the investors’ expectations for fiscal 2018 are too high: a year-on-year 12-13% growth is highly unlikely to happen regularly.

Cowen added that the Overwatch League, which will kick off in December, doesn’t look like an event that can generate a lot of revenue: „We think esports [profit and loss] expectations for 2018 are low, but we also think OWL needs to demonstrate that it can attract a significant audience.” The possibility is there, though: Activision looks at the first season of Overwatch League as laying the groundwork. The other reason behind downgrading is due to King (Candy Crush): the revenue from this subsidiary’s advertising push just „appears to be taking longer to launch than [it] had anticipated.”

Still, Cowen believes in Activision‘s core businesses: after 2016’s underperforming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, 2017’s WWII is likely going to be performing well, and they also think that 2018’s title is going to be Black Ops 4. They added that thanks to Blizzard, the stocks can stay strong, especially if the team announces a brand new game.

Activision Blizzard‘s latest financial report will be available from November 2. We’ll return to the giant’s performance then.

Source: GameSpot