Activision Invades China with Brand New 'Call of Duty Online' Game (Video)

Game publisher Activision Blizzard and Tencent Holdings Limited, a leading Internet services provider in China, have partnered to bring the most popular first-person shooter in the world to Chinese game players for the first time. Call of Duty Online, which is set in the Modern Warfare franchise universe, has been in development by Activision Publishing for approximately two years. Under the multi-year agreement with Activision Publishing, Tencent has the exclusive license to operate Call of Duty Online in mainland China. The game is free-to-play and monetized through the sales of in-game items.

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“We think China is one of the most exciting places in the world for us to grow our business and to develop innovative new games,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “Tencent is an ideal partner for Activision to bring Call of Duty Online to China. Tencent has a terrific track record of customer-focused innovation and deep market knowledge that will be invaluable to Activision as we build great games for China. We have worked closely with Tencent to create a game with broad appeal for the Chinese market. We look forward to laying the foundation for a long-standing relationship with Tencent and to launching a new and unique experience for fans.”

“We believe Call of Duty Online will attract tens of millions of loyal fans in China, and our game platform and operational expertise to run massive multi-player online games can provide strong support to deliver the immersive and highly interactive game experience to game players in China,” said Martin Lau, President of Tencent.

The new game Call of Duty Online for China will capitalize on the rich multiplayer experience that the Call of Duty franchise is known for and introduce a new gaming model designed specifically for the Chinese market. This new model will allow players the ability to personalize their weapons, characters and equipment like never before in a Call of Duty game. Using an in-game store, players can enhance their weapons, gear, and perks built specifically for the Chinese market. The new game will also bring a variety of game modes and maps and features an original story told through a series of Special Operations missions based on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare universe.

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Tencent recently invested in Epic Games, the creator of shooters like Gears of War, Bulletstorm and Unreal Tournament. Tencent has a variety of online platforms in China, including Instant Messaging QQ, web portal QQ.com, the QQ Game platform under Tencent Games, multi-media social networking service Qzone and wireless portal. Tencent services the largest online community in China and fulfills the user’s needs for communication, information, entertainment and e-Commerce on the Internet. Tencent has four main streams of revenues: Internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunications value-added services, online advertising and e-Commerce.