I just want to share my initial thoughts with the future of Call of Duty on the mobile platform. With WZM in development along side Activision offering CODM, I truly believe they will take a complete different approach in monetization compared with CODM.
I think Activision nearly acquiring Zynga before the Microsoft deal explains a lot, the last time they bought an Mobile game developer was King Digital Entertainment. Virtually directly acquiring them they we’re task to develop Call of Duty on Mobile, this was officially stated on King’s website with the following:
“Our challenge as a team is to create a Call of Duty experience on mobile that will strive to transform the best console experience fans know and love, while also breaking new ground for mobile and redefining the genre,”
Followed by the Call of Duty logo, they were initially tasked to make a western Call of Duty IP for the mobile platform In mid 2017. Later Activision announces the Tencent partnership deal for the China region in early 2018, this was the unofficial Call of Duty version known as ‘Elite Squad Mobile FPS’. Many have speculated that this version was not yet approved by Activision, but I personally believe the reason behind unmarking this product was due to development complications/uncertainty with King managing the production of the western version.
What I mean by Chinese/ Western version is Tencent would typically publish there own COD Chinese version E.g. Call of Duty: Online. This Is a Call of Duty title that has been published by Tencent exclusively in China on PC developed by Activision Shanghai & Raven Software. This explains a lot as to why Elite Squad Mobile FPS appeared very similar compared too CODO, because it was heavily inspired by the COD: Online version.
Between mid-late 2018 Elite Squad evolved from a CODO replica mobile version to a complete different experience in Dec of 2018. Known as Call of Duty: Legends of War, Nobody knows for certain what happened during this time period with King’s fallout, but I’d ass...