Call of Duty Online Video Game Heads to China

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By Jon C. Ogg Published

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) has done a better job of fending off all of the freemium games and cheap online games compared to other publishers.  Its World of Warcraft and other efforts are the reason.  Now the video game publisher has announced that it is taking Call of Duty Online to Chinese game players.

Today’s announcement is with Chinese Internet service provider Tencent Holdings Limited.  The game has been in development by Activision Publishing for the last two years and Tencent will have the exclusive operating license in mainland China.

Where this gets interesting is in the monetization, or the lack thereof: “The game is free-to-play and monetized through the sales of in-game items.”

Activision Blizzard shares are trading up slightly on the news with gains of close to 1% at $12.06 on the news against a 52-week range of $10.40 to $14.40. Keep in mind that the game publisher has a market capitalization rate of more than $13 billion at this point.

JON C. OGG

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

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