Activision's upcoming slate of in-development games remain "on track for now" despite remote working conditions onset by the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed in a new interview with CNBC (via VGC).
When asked about how the shift to remote working has affected the publisher's plans, Kotick admitted that "I don’t know that we quite know yet”, adding that “most of the things that we have in production and development are on track for now" and the company will have to "reassess that in a month and in three months."
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“We’ve been doing things like encouraging our employees to upgrade their home broadband to the highest bandwidth service and we’re paying for that," continued Kotick. "We had equipment available for take home so everyone in the software development, art or animation functions, we made equipment available so they had the newest most secure devices, but I think it’s still too early to know what the consequences [of] development will be for the next year or so.”
Activision holds the licenses to a number of major properties, including Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. We already know a number of details about Call of Duty 2020, while leaks last year have all but confirmed that new Tony Hawk and Crash Bandicoot games are in the works.
However, Kotick's statements don't rule out internal or external delays to any and every one of these projects, so don't get your hopes up just yet. It all depends on how the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, and whether game companies can adapt to the shifting environments.
Check out all the new games of 2020 still on the way, or watch our latest episode of Trending Topic featuring our reactions to the newly revealed PS5 controller.
