Activision is launching a free-to-play version of its hit first-person shooter franchise for the Chinese market

Activision has announced a brand new title within the blockbusting decision of Duty franchise, aimed solely at the Chinese market. decision of Duty on-line is being released in partnership with net service supplier Tencent; it'll be absolve to download and play, though gamers are ready to purchase things like weapons equipment and perks, through an in-game store.

The game can feature commonplace modes and multiplayer choices from the decision of Duty series, however can have its own campaign story, primarily based around a series of "Spec Ops" missions.

The publisher has long had plans to expand its multibillion greenback complete into China, that features a vast audience of keen gamers. in keeping with figures released by China's ministry of culture last year, over one hundred sixty million of the population often play on-line. However, as in South Korea, the foremost in style titles tend to be free-to-play multiplayer games, which might be accessed via an online browser and which provide micro-transactions to a lot of committed participants. decision of Duty on-line fits a lot of comfortably into this market than the console-based iterations of the series.

"We suppose China is one in all the foremost exciting places within the world for us to grow our business and to develop innovative new games," said Activision chief government Bobby Kotick. "Tencent is a perfect partner for Activision to bring decision of Duty on-line to China. Tencent features a terrific memoir of customer-focused innovation and deep market data that may be invaluable to Activision as we have a tendency to build nice games for China. we've got worked closely with Tencent to make a game with broad attractiveness for the Chinese market. we glance forward to laying the muse for a long-standing relationship with Tencent and to launching a brand new and distinctive expertise for fans."

This news comes at a motivating time for Activision Blizzard. There are reports that media and telecommunications big Vivendi is wanting to sell its sixty one share within the games publisher, attributable to pressure from investors to stabilise the corporate and boost its share worth. Video games are seen as a volatile business with some pundits predicting a crash for the trade, attributable to an over-reliance on "safe" acquainted tropes.

With a worth of regarding $10bn but, well-known trade analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities argues a buyer is unlikely to be found and Activision Blizzard would instead be spun off into a separate company. For now, though, Activision is focusing its commentary on the lucrative decision of Duty on-line announcement.