'Warzone 2.0': 'The most ambitious release in Call of Duty history'

Call of Duty's importance to Activision Blizzard, and to the gaming industry as a whole, is indisputable. It is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time. Scrutiny around Activision Blizzard's proposed acquisition by Microsoft for $68.7 billion has centered around the potential for the Xbox-maker to mark Call of Duty as an exclusive title, pulling it away from PlayStation -- a threat that recently drew PlayStation and Xbox CEOs into a rare public sparring match. Following the release of "Call of Duty: Mobile" in 2019 and "Warzone" in 2020, shares of Activision Blizzard stock spiked to a high of over $103 per share in February 2021. Over the past two years, the company reallocated studios and resources from around the globe to fuel the Call of Duty franchise. Then in the summer of 2021, a sexual harassment lawsuit against Activision Blizzard filed by the state of California on behalf of company employees sent share prices careening under $60 by December, reportedly leading to the proposed sale to Microsoft in January 2022.