Weekend tech reading: Analyst says Activision must start charging for Call of Duty online

Matthew DeCarlo

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Activision must start charging for Call of Duty online play, says Pachter Following the recent NPD sales report, which revealed software sales plummeting 15% for the month of June, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter tried to figure out exactly what the heck has been going on. June marks the fourth negative month of decline this year, but why? IndustryGamers

The state of Windows 7 gaming Don't believe what you've heard—the state of Windows gaming is still strong. Nine months after Windows 7 hit the market, Microsoft has rehabilitated its reputation on desktop PCs. The company has effectively banished memories of Vista's poor performance. Still, PC game sales have been off this year, sometimes by more than a few percentage points, depending on the study. ExtremeTech

AMD reaffirms plans to introduce second-gen DirectX 11 chips in 2010 Advanced Micro Devices said that its ATI graphics business unit has shipped over sixteen million of DirectX 11-compatible graphics processing units and reiterated plans to introduce second-generation DirectX 11 graphics chips later in 2010. Besides, despite rumours, AMD expects supply constraints to ease in the second half of the year. X-bit labs

Google's fight to keep search a secret Conspiracy theorists disinclined to read any further, fire away about the NSA and Wi-Fi-gate. The actual topic of this discussion is more basic to Google's core identity: should it be required to disclose how its secret recipe for organizing the Internet is put together as to assure regulators and Internet publishers that it isn't gaming the results? CNET

Microsoft confirms 'nasty' Windows zero-day bug Microsoft on Friday warned that attackers are exploiting a critical unpatched Windows vulnerability using infected USB flash drives. The bug admission is the first that affects Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) since Microsoft retired the edition from support, researchers said. When Microsoft does fix the flaw, it will not be providing a patch for machines still running XP SP2. ComputerWorld

Intel vs. Nvidia: The tech behind the legal case The graphics chip has become one of the big legal battlegrounds for Intel. To get a better understanding of what all of the legal wrangling is about, I asked an expert to describe the technology underlying the court battle between Intel and the world's largest purveyor of standalone graphics chips, Nvidia. CNET

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Its not piracy that destroying the gaming industry..Its the gaming industry its self. First they want to charge you for a game you won't own, next they want to charge you for "enhanced game features or DLC", now they want to charge you again to play with other people. What next?.. Fees for pressing buttons on the controller or keyboard? Maybe they will start charging a texting fee for in-game chat? Bend over and lube up..Its not gonna get any better.
 
I own an Intel CPU & Nvidia graphics card, so who's side am i on ?

Nvidia..Stick up for the smaller guy lol
 
A really good collection of articles - thanks! I found the ExtremeTech article on Windows 7 and PC gaming particularly interesting.

As far as paying for online gaming, I don't have a problem with that as long as it doesn't get crazy. Computer gaming is just another form of recreation. And frankly, it's one of the cheapest forms of recreation you'll find. You pay $12 to go see a two hour movie. That's $6 an hour not including popcorn and a soda which will cost you as much as the movie. Go to a sporting event and you'll pay $50 (again not including any food or souvenir purchases) for a 3 hour event. Now you're at $17 an hour. Most computer games will take you 60-80 hours to finish with many taking longer. Recently, I invested 115 hours into Fallout 3 and 120 hours into Dragon Age: Origins. For those $50 games, that cost equates to .45 cents an hour. Get in on one of the Steam sales and now you're talking a dime an hour to play many games. You won't find many (if any) recreational activities at that cost, so I don't begrudge game companies considering charging a few bucks for online play to maximize profits on their product.
 
Activision is pathetic, they already charge $60 for the game until its sequel comes out, and then charge $20+ for each map pack? These *****s in the corporate takeover of gaming must all be from the music industry.
 
Lets start with the basics and the bull **** these people are pulling. Does anyone remember when a computer cost $3000. Now they are 200 to 3000(being the top end). How can they be losing money if 1-Technology is significantly cheaper and 2 they are charging 60$ for a game. Heres whats really going on, Call of duty has been out for almost 2 years, NO **** YOUR NOT MAKING MONEY BECAUSE THE GAME HAS BEEN BAUGHT BY EVERYONE!!!! ARE YOU STUPID? Its like there is 1 million people in the world and everyone has the game and this guy is saying wow are sales are down again wtf is going on.

Charge a monthly fee or subscription to play a game, i will never buy a game from you again im perfectly contempt with stratego or finding a girl to bang randomly every night.

And i can spell and write better im just enraged.

One more thing, lets say MW2 sold 20 million copies on xbox and ps3, thats 1.2billions dollars. Not to mention the fact that dlc is 20$ and 8 million were sold, lets just say. So.....1.2 billion isnt enough?

along with 1.6 million in dlc. GOD IM SO MADD
 
LOL@dividebyzero.... excellent!

Cracks me up reading these excessive wines by people who actually have to pay a few bucks for their entertainment. Let's call it like it really is. You've stolen games your whole life - you don't know how to do anything different. You have dozens if not hundreds of illegally downloaded games on your hard drive. But the game makers have found a way to circumvent that and make a few bucks for the 20+ million dollar, 4 year development fee (which may or may not turn out to be a success in which case they lose everything) and now you're pissed off about that.

Sucks to be you I guess.... Tighten up your diapers and break out your credit card if you want to play with the rest of us. ;)
 
It's funny how people jump at Activision for what an analyst said. Sure, it's fun to hate Activision, but it hasn't charged for online gameplay, nor has it announced plans to do that.

Darkshadoe said:
Its not piracy that destroying the gaming industry..Its the gaming industry its self. First they want to charge you for a game you won't own
Can you explain what you mean by "charge you for a game you won't own?" I wanted to answer your post but this sentence doesn't make sense to me.
 
@ET3D: What he probably means is that software is almost always a lease now - despite what it seems, and particularly in the eyes of the publishers, when you purchase a game today, you are actually purchasing the rights to play the game, which is a revocable privilege that they can take away from you as they see fit. They'd like to take this mentality to the real next step, where you cannot even transfer your purchased software to someone else when you're done with it. DLC on the consoles has already achieved this, and a lot of analysts even say that's the future.

TomSEA: Wow, man. Stick up for those publishers! Which one do YOU work for? Pretty blatant there. You just accused everyone of being a thief and somehow transformed turning 20 million in 1.2 billion into "making a few bucks".
 
I think he thinks the money you pay for online gaming covers all games not just Call of Duty, the only way too do it is to pay £40.00 a year like xbox live because you cant have for example £10 pounds a year for every online game you play online the charge would have to cover all online games.
 
TomSEA said:
LOL@dividebyzero.... excellent!

Cracks me up reading these excessive wines by people who actually have to pay a few bucks for their entertainment. Let's call it like it really is. You've stolen games your whole life - you don't know how to do anything different. You have dozens if not hundreds of illegally downloaded games on your hard drive. But the game makers have found a way to circumvent that and make a few bucks for the 20+ million dollar, 4 year development fee (which may or may not turn out to be a success in which case they lose everything) and now you're pissed off about that.

Sucks to be you I guess.... Tighten up your diapers and break out your credit card if you want to play with the rest of us. ;)

Really Tom? So everyone that does not want to pay a subscription fee to play multiplayer games is a thief and you are some noble person that has never done any wrong? Get over yourself. I realize you have a vendetta against piracy, but accusing every person of being a thief is not the way to go about fixing it.

As for your argument for game publishers to be even greedier than they already are.. First of all, there is no way that MW2 took four years to create seeing as it is just a rehash of the first game that came out a year later. Secondly, even if it did take four years and 20+ million dollars to create (which it did not), they made their money back at least 60 times over.

The market would have adapted a long time ago if the game industry's methods were unprofitable for the publishers, but obviously they are still making money or they would not be in business.
 
Docnoq said:
TomSEA said:
LOL@dividebyzero.... excellent!

Cracks me up reading these excessive wines by people who actually have to pay a few bucks for their entertainment. Let's call it like it really is. You've stolen games your whole life - you don't know how to do anything different. You have dozens if not hundreds of illegally downloaded games on your hard drive. But the game makers have found a way to circumvent that and make a few bucks for the 20+ million dollar, 4 year development fee (which may or may not turn out to be a success in which case they lose everything) and now you're pissed off about that.

Sucks to be you I guess.... Tighten up your diapers and break out your credit card if you want to play with the rest of us. ;)

Really Tom? So everyone that does not want to pay a subscription fee to play multiplayer games is a thief and you are some noble person that has never done any wrong? Get over yourself. I realize you have a vendetta against piracy, but accusing every person of being a thief is not the way to go about fixing it.

As for your argument for game publishers to be even greedier than they already are.. First of all, there is no way that MW2 took four years to create seeing as it is just a rehash of the first game that came out a year later. Secondly, even if it did take four years and 20+ million dollars to create (which it did not), they made their money back at least 60 times over.

The market would have adapted a long time ago if the game industry's methods were unprofitable for the publishers, but obviously they are still making money or they would not be in business.

Ok just to correct a couple of things, it did technically take 4 years to create, the first one took 2 years (the original idea) then another 2 years for the second one to come out.

Again also it actually took more than 20 Million to create, you under-estimate the amount of money activition put into making the games. Google it if you don't believe me.
 
@ET3D : Like skout said, when you "buy" a game you don't own it. You are just playing for the ability to play it.

@TomSEA : "Cracks me up reading these excessive wines by people who actually have to pay a few bucks for their entertainment. Let's call it like it really is. You've stolen games your whole life - you don't know how to do anything different. You have dozens if not hundreds of illegally downloaded games on your hard drive. But the game makers have found a way to circumvent that and make a few bucks for the 20+ million dollar, 4 year development fee (which may or may not turn out to be a success in which case they lose everything) and now you're pissed off about that.

Sucks to be you I guess.... Tighten up your diapers and break out your credit card if you want to play with the rest of us. "

Maybe your arguments may hold more validity if you disclosed which game or software company is employing you.
 
burty117 said:
Ok just to correct a couple of things, it did technically take 4 years to create, the first one took 2 years (the original idea) then another 2 years for the second one to come out.

Again also it actually took more than 20 Million to create, you under-estimate the amount of money activition put into making the games. Google it if you don't believe me.

Ok, so the MW1 took two years, and MW2 took two years. That is two games that took two years each. If you want to aggregate that into four years, then you have to also add the revenue generated by MW1 as well. MW2 by itself did not take four years of development.
 
Docnoq said:
burty117 said:
Ok just to correct a couple of things, it did technically take 4 years to create, the first one took 2 years (the original idea) then another 2 years for the second one to come out.

Again also it actually took more than 20 Million to create, you under-estimate the amount of money activition put into making the games. Google it if you don't believe me.

Ok, so the MW1 took two years, and MW2 took two years. That is two games that took two years each. If you want to aggregate that into four years, then you have to also add the revenue generated by MW1 as well. MW2 by itself did not take four years of development.
Totally agree Docnoq, if you add up the development time of the first game then you HAVE to add up the revenue as well, there is not getting around this, game publishers this days are raking in the money in a gargantuan fashion. To say that any of them that are not indie developers working out of their own garages are not making money is just naive.
 
dude whip out the credit card? i do every time a damn game comes out i lose 60 and so does everyone else and no not everyone pirates 20 million games some of us only make 7.25. Maybe at the end of theday after working 12 hours id like to play some COD or halo without having to fork out more money that i dont have its bs.
 
Charging for online gaming, prepare to see numbers drop dramatically. Theres way too much money to be made for companies to do nothing, the days of free online gaming are numbered, capitalism at its finest :(
 
Charging for online gaming will only make there sales sink even lower. Charging for map packs is pretty nuts. I hope blizzard doesn't get any ideas from these jerks.
 
I agree that with the game prices how they are that map packs should be free, TF2, UT3, Mass Effect and to an extent the Halo series have the right idea, you paid a hefty price for the game so improving it (titan patch for UT3 being a BIG improvment and a good example) will only benifit the end user and possibly up sales (again UT3 after that patch was almost a proper UT game again and sales went up).

I wouldn't pay a monthly bill unless the game was "free" so to speak. as Darkshadoe said, we don't really own the games (such as WoW) so just paying a monthly bill for the right to play the game would be better than paying for the game then paying a monthly bill to play online, thats just a rip off.
 
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