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Like it or not, almost any AAA game nowadays has some sort of microtransactions built in to make the publisher more money than just the initial game purchase. No stranger to this is Activision, who’s Call of Duty franchise is now expected to have some sort of microtransaction-type system built in with each new entry.

If you’re hoping that microtransactions will go away in the next Call of Duty, or even Destiny title, it seems that won’t be happening anytime soon. In Activision’s latest earnings call, Activision executive Collister Johnson shared that the publisher generates over $4 billion dollars per year!

“First, our team produced new content releases that invigorated distant communities and bring in new audiences. Second, our growing stream of live operations, which includes content, services, features and events that engage our franchise communities and encourage new players to join. Third, the expansion of our existing franchises onto mobile, the world’s largest platform, and the creation of new franchises. And fourth, new and growing franchise engagement revenue models such as esports leagues and digital advertising.

On the first driver, our teams continued to deliver exceptional innovation and execution with major new content releases for Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush. These content releases reinforce a strong foundation for our second growth driver, live operations. We generate over $4 billion a year in net bookings from in-game content, which represents the growing majority of our net bookings, yet still offer some of the best value per hour in all of entertainment. We see the continued improvement of our live operations model as one of our largest growth opportunities with the potential to generate billions of dollars of high-margin incremental revenue as we deliver year-round in-game content for our community.”

That’s a lot of cheese on top of the usual $60 game purchase, no? Speaking of microtransactions, Activision has admitted that Destiny 2 sales aren’t living up to expectations, with the publisher pushing for the speed which Bungie releases new content, as well as “new opportunities” for microtransactions.

Activision’s latest Cal of Duty title, Black Ops 4, has recently caught the ire of the Call of Duty community given the Black Market’s slow progression with its tier system, which, as you can guess, can be mitigated by spending real world money. However, Treyarch has flipped the switch for this weekend as players will get double tier progression until Monday.

Source: SeekingAlpha (login required)