Name of Obligation followers are nonetheless digesting the information that Activision is strolling away from Warzone Cell, the sport that was meant to guide the battle royale into a brand new period.
Over the weekend, Activision pulled Warzone Cell from iOS and Android app shops, with the scope of the sport being “streamlined” and an admission it had not met expectations. Whereas servers will stay on-line for now, no new content material or updates might be issued to the sport, and gamers can not spend actual cash in it.
“We’re pleased with the accomplishment in bringing Name of Obligation: Warzone to cellular in an genuine method, [but] it sadly has not met our expectations with mobile-first gamers prefer it has with PC and console audiences,” Activision mentioned.
It’s a brutal finish for a sport that clearly struggled proper out of the gate. Warzone Cell launched in March 2024 on iOS and Android as a Warzone-specific Name of Obligation cellular expertise that supplied battle royale for as much as 120 gamers, in addition to cross-progression with the PC and console Warzone, Trendy Warfare 2 and three, and, later within the 12 months, Black Ops 6.
IGN’s Name of Obligation Warzone Cell assessment returned an 8/10. We mentioned: “Name of Obligation: Warzone Cell contains all the most effective components of Warzone, whereas rushing up and streamlining matches and utilizing cross-progression to make this a significant extension of the standard expertise.”
Activision’s hope was that Warzone Cell would make a splash within the aggressive cellular shooter market, the place the vastly profitable Name of Obligation Cell, developed by Tencent-owned TiMi Studio Group, is already established. With Name of Obligation Cell, which has seen 1 billion downloads since launch, income is shared between Activision and Tencent. Warzone Cell, however, was developed fully in-house at Activision, and so the corporate acquired an even bigger slice of the cash pie each time a participant dropped money on a battle move or a beauty.
However Warzone Cell, which requires extra highly effective cell phones than Name of Obligation Cell to work nicely, failed to fulfill Activision’s expectations, and its growth crew was scaled down when, in September final 12 months, Microsoft-wide layoffs hit throughout the video games enterprise.
Now, Name of Obligation followers, particularly those that did play Warzone Cell, have lamented the state of the sport and certainly the franchise.
“This sport merely got here out too early and needed to be too grasping,” mentioned redditor Maddafragg. “It could possibly be seen on the Reddit movies, loads of gameplay was not fluid with bizarre graphics, it could possibly be seen that even when the sport is playable, the system struggles to run it. The world of cellular gaming is cursed, it is not simply Warzone that is dying. Lifeless by Daylight cellular and Star Wars hunter can even shut the doorways.”
“Seems cellular video games have to be optimized on most units to achieve success, you possibly can’t simply cater to excessive finish units and hope your sport succeed — it will not,” added piegeamorue.
“Greed is a harmful factor. Activision was too grasping and when it leaked that they deliberate on killing CODM in favor of WZM they basically turned tens of tens of millions of individuals towards the sport. It turned ‘us vs them’ and CODM is vastly extra accessible than WZM — the loss was assured.”
What’s subsequent for Name of Obligation, which seems to be in a tough spot proper now? Earlier this month, The Recreation Enterprise reported that whereas Black Ops 6 launched massive late final 12 months, the Name of Obligation franchise noticed its customers decline afterwards, and “extra sharply” than lately.
Right here’s the related blurb:
… the fact is that regardless of a robust begin, Name of Obligation has struggled to have interaction gamers to the diploma it has prior to now. In response to Ampere, in March 2025, Name of Obligation had 20.6 million gamers. That’s nonetheless an enormous quantity, nevertheless it’s barely lower than March 2024, which had 20.8 million gamers, and nicely down on March 2023, which noticed 22.4 million gamers.
The return of the much-loved Verdansk to Warzone did give the battle royale a much-needed shot within the arm, however with the honeymoon interval over and accusations of rampant dishonest as soon as once more dominating the narrative, all eyes are on Activision and this 12 months’s Name of Obligation sport to see if the still-huge first-person shooter franchise can reinvent itself as soon as once more.
Associated, there are a variety of obvious datamined gameplay movies doing the rounds that present wall-running and even jet packs working in Black Ops 6. This, some consider, signifies this 12 months’s Black Ops 7 will ditch Activision’s ‘boots on the bottom’ mantra for gameplay harking back to Black Ops 3.
In addition they added jetpacks lol pic.twitter.com/ZrFxLVfQkj
— Bikou (@Kivikou) Might 20, 2025
🚨‼️WALL RUNNING CONFIRMED FOR BO7‼️🚨There’s wall working in BO6 at present It’s unclear if it is leftover from BO3 that managed to make it is method right into a glitch by way of BO6 or if it is from BO7 and is left within the BO6 recordsdata. @charlieINTEL @ModernWarzone @Dexerto pic.twitter.com/0FJ0guUIEH
— peter (@viipeter_) Might 19, 2025
Activision instructed IGN its groups are busy and transferring ahead on a wide range of work, so hopefully we’ll see the fruits of that quickly. Microsoft’s annual June Xbox showcase is across the nook. Maybe Name of Obligation will flip up there. And, in the meantime, Name of Obligation: Cell goes sturdy, however, as we’ve identified, it’s not as profitable a enterprise for Activision, regardless of being greater.
Activision Blizzard’s current cellular struggles additionally name into query Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of the corporate itself, given Xbox boss Phil Spencer has made no secret that the choice was partly motivated by Xbox’s lofty cellular ambitions (Activision Blizzard owns King, the maker of phenomenally in style cellular sport Sweet Crush). Certainly, Microsoft plans to launch an app retailer of its personal, taking up Apple and Google within the profitable cellular sport area.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
