So I'd love to hear a little bit about your sense of how the pandemic has affected player behavior. This is just the beginning of the new bold era for 'Call of Duty,' but it is a testament to a lot of the work we've been laying and forging for ourselves and for our community for many months, if not years, now.ĪLLIE GARFINKLE: And I know you're on the heels of this pandemic explosion, but I know you've also been watching those players and getting a lot of player feedback. And we're going to continue to think player first in everything we do. To see it pay off now to the tune of the numbers that we've been reporting in just the last several days reflects a lot of that work. We've been looking at this from every angle about how do we make sure this new era for the franchise is built from a player first lens. More so than ever before, I think one of the reasons we're seeing success is we've kept so close to our community of influencers, our streamers, really thinking about what our players are looking for, and how do we deliver the best possible gameplay experience for them. And to blow past some of the biggest entertainment launches in the entire industry with the launch of 'Modern Warfare 2' and now with 'Warzone 2.0' yesterday has been a hallmark and watershed moment for us. We've been looking at these numbers for several weeks, as I mentioned.

So can you talk to me a little bit about why you think you've successfully bucked that trend and what these numbers say about the pull of 'Call of Duty' in popular culture?

But that's not showing up here in these numbers that we're seeing from 'Modern Warfare' at all. And so we love these types of features because this is a new way to not only play with the people you know, but maybe find new interactions and new friends along the way.ĪLLIE GARFINKLE: Johanna, we've been talking about slowing consumer spending on this show a lot. And we often say 'Call of Duty' is one of the best ways to make friends, meet new friends, and create long lasting connections. I think it reflects as well just more of the social connection points that gaming affords our community. To your point on features proximity chat is a way where you can overhear some of the other players that might be nearby while you're playing your experience on this big map of ours that we've released.Īnd we're already seeing some incredible instances and interactions between players through that type of a feature. So even more players are pouring into 'Call of Duty' since we launched 'Modern Warfare 2' just a few weeks ago. Yes, we are on the precipice of awesome new release and new player engagement with 'Warzone 2.0.' We just launched that yesterday. JOHANNA FARIES: It's great that you know that already.

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