Not content with having conquered the music, licensed and FPS genres with its banner titles like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, Activision is planning to make a bold move into action genre, MCV can reveal.

Activision Publishing CEO and president Mike Griffith revealed to MCV in an exclusive interview at E3 that despite his stringent approach to new IP, he wants the company to stake a claim on the action game sector.

“New IP is risky – most of them fail. Our approach is balanced and measured, very selective,” explained Griffiths. This year the publisher launches two new properties, open world game Prototype and FPS Singularity.

But the action genre - worth some $4bn, he said - is the next one ripe for Activision to expand into, following the same path as the firm did with the launch of new racing IP Blur. That game's developer, Bizarre Creations, was acquired specifically so the firm could expand into a new genre - and it seems there will be no let up in those growth plans, according to Griffith.

He said: “The action genre is $4bn in size. That will be our next major entry into a space where we are significantly under-developed.

"We haven’t detailed any specifics yet, that will come later, but it will be a very similar approach to our strategy in racing, where there was a big opportunity and the consumers weren’t being served.”