Several game development companies have been forced to work remotely, sending their employees home, due to the increasing outbreaks of Coronavirus (COVID-19). During a financial video conference yesterday, Activision executives declared it to be a challenging transition for the company, however, there will be big releases this year, including the new Call of Duty and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
Activison COO Daniel Alegre says:
"While the move to remote work adds complexity and challenges in some areas of the game development process, including creative collaboration, motion capture, voiceover work, localization and quality assurance, we are implementing mitigation measures to address each of these Importantly, based on the work done to date, we still expect to deliver a robust roster of content throughout the remainder of the year. This includes the upcoming premium version of Call of Duty, two titles based on Activision's IP library. , The World of Warcraft: Expanding Shadowlands, Regional Trials for New Mobile Titles, and Ongoing Live Operations on Our Major Franchisees."
J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard, went a little deeper about the objective of the development of Shadowlands, which according to him, is coming a little later than the developer team anticipated. As most of the previous expansions of WoW (World of Warcraft) arrived in July or August, we expected the same to happen at this time, however, according to the president of the studio, the launch should take place towards the end of 2020.
"Our teams have done a very good job of moving to working from home. We were able to welcome select players to the Shadowlands closed alpha last month, and thanks to the team's hard work, Shadowlands is on its way to launch for fourth quarter of this year."
Although Activision is stating that it will release Call of Duty and Shadowlands, strangely, two big titles that many are waiting for: Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 were not mentioned. Due to this fact, it is believed that both games will not appear this year.
It is known that Diablo 4 is still a long way off, as director Luis Barriga said during Blizzcon 2019 that the game will not be released anytime soon.
Are you looking forward to the release of the new Call of Duty and/or World of Warcraft: Shadowlands? Comment below and share your opinion with us!
