Part of me was thinking that the Activision group should be wrapped up under the Xbox banner, as they are in real life, but given the number of studios, I thought it was still worth doing on its own.

These are all the games that Activision-Blizzard published in 2024, the titles that have been bolded were original releases:

• Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile

• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic

• World of Warcraft: The War Within

• Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

• Warcraft I: Remastered

• Warcraft II: Remastered

Of course, we can’t talk about Activision-Blizzard in 2024, without talking about the insane number of layoffs that impacted the group at the start of the year.

Across the Microsoft gaming space around 1,900 jobs were cut and while some were at Xbox and Bethesda, the vast majority was at Activision. Across the industry in 2024, there were around ~14,500 jobs cut, which makes the Activision-Blizzard cuts around 13% of that total, so it was a big deal.

One studio that was impacted in a weird way was Toys For Bob, around 90 staff were let go from the studio, part of that 1,900 but their studio was closed as well. Now the people that remained were still there, but the physical studio was closed down, with the staff being told they were now going to work remote. The studio itself revealed just a few weeks later that they would be breaking away from the family and going back to being independent. That happened in May of 2024.

Studios Sold:

• Toys For Bob - Bought itself from Activision-Blizzard, now independent

So with that all said, it is time to take a look at what each part of this giant group are up to in 2025 and spoiler alert, it is going to be a lot of Call of Duty.

Activision

ACTIVISION SHANGHAI

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile | Series: Call of Duty Online

2024 saw Activision release the mobile version of Warzone, which finally let people play the game on the go, if you wanted to of course. There were four studios that made the game, this being one of them and from its release in March, the game got a good cadence of content drops.

Given that the game seems to be doing ok, on the iOS app store it does place 62 spots behind Call of Duty: Mobile, I would expect more content for the game. The only issue is that in order for this game to be made, four studios are assigned to it, it also means that groups like Shanghai are going to be stuck here and not allowed to make anything else.

BEENOX

Locations: Québec, Canada | Montreal, Canada

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile | Series: Spider-Man titles, Skylanders series

Basically this could be a copy paste of the Shanghai group, if not for one crucial aspect, Beenox were allowed to make original games for the longest time, but for the past 10+ years, they have been a support studio for Call of Duty content. 2024 saw them working on Warzone Mobile.

The studio has two locations, both in Canada and they are not looking at hiring any new folks at this time, which is usually a good sign. The problem is that with more than 300 staff, having them be an asset farm for a Call of Duty game that ranks well below where it should, well that is just a waste of talent. I was hoping that with Microsoft in charge, they would let many of the studios that have been chained to the series finally get a chance to do something new, but that does not seem likely at this time.

DEMONWARE

Last Game Released: None | Series: None

This studio is not a game maker, but a network creator. If an Activision game has online components, then these are the folks to make them work. You will see their name in most credits, but you won’t hear about them directly.

They were tagged as having supported Call of Duty Warzone Mobile, which again is just in a support role.

DIGITAL LEGENDS ENTERTAINMENT

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile | Series: micoach series, Battlefield Bad Company 2 for Mobile

Last year, we called out that this studio would be hard at work on the upcoming launch of Warzone Mobile and what a surprise, it launched just a few months later. They, like all the others working on the game have been creating content for the game since then. There were reports that more jobs, outside of the early 2024 cuts, were happening and this studio might be impacted, but they were not confirmed. The studio also provided support to Black Ops 6, though the scale of work was unknown.

So what does 2025 hold for the mobile focused developer, honestly more Warzone Mobile. The studio has no open roles right now, which really doesn’t mean much as a mobile developer, nor when this is one studio of many working on the same game. The bigger problem is just that as a mobile focused developer, we have no idea what else they could have going on, though I doubt it is anything. Given their FPS pedigree on mobile, this is one studio that seems locked into Warzone Mobile for the long haul.

Elsewhere Entertainment

Last Game Released: None | Series: None

This is a new studio that was created by Activision in 2024 and is based in Warsaw, Poland. Their entire reason for existing is “exclusively focused on creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.“

Given the studio was only founded in 2024, there is no chance we hear from them in 2025. We know that there were a number or staff already on board, with people there having worked on the following series The Last of Us, Uncharted, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Destiny, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Far Cry. At the time of writing the studio has more than 40 jobs available, which likely means 2026 is the earliest we will here from this group.

HIGH MOON STUDIOS

Last Game Released: Deadpool | Series: Transformers: Cybertron series

Outside of some Destiny support for both games, this studio is another one that has been forced to create content for Call of Duty, working on all the games since 2014’s Advanced Warfare. They were reported to have worked on Black Ops 6, but almost everyone has from Activision it seems, so there is nothing really to report on there.

What is interesting is that at the time of writing, the studio had a number of roles they were looking to fill. Now while one job hopes people have experience with the Call of Duty engine and another wants FPS experience as its top priority, the other two are interesting. The gameplay engineer roles both express interest in open world game design, now at face value, that could just mean a large map for Warzone or CoD multiplayer, but it could mean something else entirely. Sadly, I expect they are going to be stuck on Call of Duty for the foreseeable future, as those gameplay roles also want FPS experience and I can not see Activision letting a studio create another first person shooter game.

INFINITY WARD

Locations: Woodland Hills, USA | Kraków, Poland | Mexico City, Mexico | Austin, TX | Barcelona, Spain

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | Series: Call of Duty Modern Warfare series, Call of Duty Ghosts

2022 was the last year that Infinity Ward was the lead studio and while Modern Warfare II was well received, the multiplayer just did ok. Given that the studio has had a few years since that release, they are on the block for a game in 2025. In a weird twist though, Infinity Ward was revealed to be the developer for the 2026 Call of Duty title, which could mean either there is no game this year, or another studio is getting the lead role.

Given the less than stellar reception to Modern Warfare III, there is a hope that the sub-series won’t continue this year, but until they reveal it, who knows. At the time of writing the studio has a number of open roles available, like Art Director and Game Designer, but they all point to more Call of Duty, which is expected. The reveal of Call of Duty games varies from year to year, sometimes it is early in the year, sometimes its late August, we honestly don’t know when it will happen this time. Given Xbox own the series now, I imagine they will have the game as part of their June Showcase, if that happens, but it is possible they might reveal the game before the show.

A nice update for the PlayStation 5 Pro version of Black Ops 6 is out, with Digital Foundry exploring the update with footage from the Infinity Ward in team in Poland, which is where the engine is made, just like id Software and their German team.

RAVEN SOFTWARE

Locations: Middleton, USA | Shanghai, China

Last Game Released: Singularity | Series: Hexen series, X-Men Legends series, Soldier of Fortune series

2024 was a big year for Raven Software, not only were they the lead developer on the amazing campaign for Black Ops 6, but workers at more studios also joined the Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA union, making it one of the largest videogame unions in North America. This was the union that the folks at Raven formed in 2023, before being joined by Blizzard Albany.

Given the studios support nature on multiple Call of Duty projects, we are bound to hear from them in 2025. The studio has a few open roles, but again given that the studio works on both mainline games and the Warzone titles, who knows where those jobs will end up.

SLEDGEHAMMER GAMES

Locations: Foster City, USA | Melbourne, Australia | Toronto, Canada | Guilford, England

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III | Series: Call of Duty: WWII, Call of Duty: Vanguard

2023 saw this group lead Modern Warfare III and boy were people not happy with that game. They did support the game in 2024, until the release of Black Ops 6 of course. The studio also saw its main Californian location closed down in 2024, with staff now working fully remote, but the hope is that a new studio will be opened early this year.

As for the studio, there were reports in early 2024 that they would be taking up the reigns of Call of Duty in 2027, which would make it a four year gap between releases, which would be quite different. But there were also rumours floating about in 2024 that this group would be making a Halo game as well. There was of course no confirmation to those rumours, but with the extra year until their next Call of Duty title, who knows. With the studio not the lead this year, they will likely just support whomever is the lead on the next game in the series and that would be all from them.

SOLID STATE

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile | Series: None

This studio has been around for a few years now and they are a mobile focused studio, as you might have guessed from the fact that they worked in Warzone Mobile. They were also the studio that helped get Call of Duty: Mobile out the door a few years ago, so they know their way around the series and phones.

Given that both games are still on going, the studio is just going to keep delivering updates to them. They don’t have any open roles, which is another reason to believe they are just going to stick with what they have.

TREYARCH

Last Game Released: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | Series: Call of Duty: Black Ops series, Spider-Man 2

With Treyarch being the lead for Black Ops 6, they will spend 2025 delivering content for the games multiplayer and zombie modes. Beyond that, we wont hear anything else from the studio this year, but I am happy to be proven wrong.

Blizzard

TEAM 2

Last Game Released: World of Warcraft: The War Within | Series: World of Warcraft

2024 was a big year for the World of Team, as not only did they release Cataclysm Classic in May, but then just a few months later in August, The War Within released. The second one is the more important of the two expansion releases, as that is the first part of the new Worldsoul Saga, a new trilogy of expansions that were revealed back in 2023.

Both expansions saw a number of patches released across the remainder of 2024 and there is nothing to suggest that will change in 2025. We know that the team are working on the Midnight, and The Last Titan expansions, the second and third chapters of the Worldsoul Saga, but there is no timeline for those releases. Some folks have theorised that the reveal of all three at once means they will be released with just 12 months between them, others say it will be two years as always. As for WoW Classic, the team have kept a decent pace with those expansions, which likely means we will see Mists of Pandaria in 2026, if not late 2025.

TEAM 3

Last Game Released: Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred | Series: Diablo series

After having a pretty special year in 2023, the Diablo team kept the fun going throughout 2024 with seasonal updates for the game and of course the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

The game will get its Season 7 in just a few weeks, as its expected to begin on January 21st, but things can always change. The Campfire Chat that took place in November 2024, also below, will give you an idea of what to expect in the new update, but things will have changed between then and whenever the season goes live. As for 2025 as a whole, there is no roadmap for content for the game at this time, so we don’t know the scope of seasons or if there is a second expansion, though people seemingly want one.

TEAM 4

Last Game Released: Overwatch 2 | Series: Overwatch series

Overwatch 2 continues and the team behind it at Blizzard made the weird choice to bring back the 6v6 that people loved about the first game, but then removed from the sequel. They managed to get the 14th season of content released in 2024, along side a few unique collabs, like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Cowboy Bebop.

Given the game seems to be doing well, with the game director making comments about the games future just before the holidays kicked off, it seems the future is still bright for the game. Of course, Marvel Rivals a game that could be charitably called an homage to Overwatch released in December 2024, so that could inspire new updates for Overwatch 2, but only time will tell.

TEAM 5

Last Game Released: Hearthstone | Series: Heathstone

Hearthstone had a fairly decent 2024, the game not only turned 10 years of age, but they saw a number of expansions released across the year, with The Great Dark Beyond being the last. December still had goods to share as Battlegrounds Season 9, Enter the Technotavern also kicked off last month.

Now we know 2025 will have more cards and expansions for players, as was revealed in the World of War Direct back in 2024, you can watch it below. There are three seasons planned for Battlegrounds and three mini-sets and while not dated, they tend to release in Late March/Early April, then Late July/Early August and the third one being Early to mid-November. I don’t expect there to be much change to their cadence, because it has been that way for years now.

Incubation

Last Game Released: Warcraft Rumble | Series: Diablo Immortal

The incubation group at Blizzard is not your standard team, they are not making a new entry in series X, but rather they are looking at new ways of play and new ip they can create. An example of this is Warcraft Rumble, which was conceived within this group and eventually became its own full release.

Now the rumours about this group are as plentiful as the day is long, the most believed one of late is that Dan Hay, formally Mr Far Cry at Ubisoft, who has been with Blizzard for almost 3 years now, is leading a team to create a new Starcraft shooter. Given that Dan was the man (apologies for that) who oversaw Far Cry and essentially crafted the framework of the series, taking parts of that and putting in within Starcraft could be good. Now this group makes a lot of things that never become anything, so will this shooter be a thing in the end, given that Blizzard cancelled a game known as Odyssey after 6 years in development, it is hard to say what they will do.

Blizzard Albany

Last Game Released: Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred | Series: Diablo series

Once known as Vicarious Visions, the studio was rebranded to Blizzard Albany when they were assigned to work on Diablo II: Resurrected and have assisted with Diablo IV and its expansion.

Sadly as they seem to be a support team for Diablo now, there is little chance that they are going to be doing anything else except Diablo, but their name might appear throughout the year.

King

KING

Last Game Released: Candy Crush Friends Saga | Series: Candy Crush series, Bubble Witch series, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!

Just like 2023, 2024 saw King just release updates for their various games that are still active. We did see Phil Spencer visit the studios at the end of 2023 and again in 2024, so odds are they are cooking up something new, we just have no idea what. We have just listed the company as a whole here, but there are 12 studios working on games, so with there being 13 games actively supported.

Could 2025 be the year we see something new from the king of mobile games, hopefully.

So there we go, all we could drum up for Activision-Blizzard, which is sadly just Call of Duty and more expansions and updates for the Blizzard games. With Xbox now owning them for a full year, there is the chance we might see some of the studios break off to do something new, but only time will tell.