Activision denies plans to charge for COD multiplayer

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Rumors recently surfaced suggesting that Activision might implement a subscription model for Call of Duty online multiplayer. According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, the mega-publisher wants to introduce some form of paid access, but the company is waiting until the inevitable backlash will have less effect on sales of COD: Black Ops.

Pachter claims the monetization scheme will begin with a cheap premium membership that provides virtual goods such as special weapons and armor. That will escalate to a more expensive subscription that grants access to map packs and eventually, when the time is right, he says Activision will offer an " all access pass" to play games like COD, WoW and SC2.

"The trick is managing this without destroying sales of the game. They will tread very carefully, and will make sure that they let consumers know that they are NOT taking anything away, but are merely offering a LOT MORE VALUE for a little bit of money," Pachter said. Activision quickly chimed in on the matter and partially refuted the claims.

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that the company would never charge for out of the box Call of Duty online multiplayer. As for Pachter's theory? "He's probably looking at meta-trends in the world and in culture about online services," Hirshberg noted, reassuring IndustryGamers further that Activision would "never, ever charge" for multiplayer.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/41287-activision-denies-plans-to-charge-for-cod-multiplayer.html

 

[Wagan8r]

Key words, "waiting until". Screw you, Activision.

 

[Guest]

im actually cool with this. let em charge all they want for multiplayer, its not as if there are no better fps's out there to play.

 

[Guest]

If black ops single player is anything to go by, multiplayer is no great loss. Either way, I don't play multiplayer fpses online. Far too unbalanced, IMO.

 

[princeton]

God I think the Brain from animaniacs was less power hungry than activision.

 

[Burty117]

Well if they charge then I won't play, simple as that.

instead i'll go to L4D2 or TF2 or B:BC2 etc...

Seriously Activ . . . If you start making stupid moves such as this then you ARE going to lose sales for the simple fact, I can buy from almost any other publisher and 9/10 it'll be free!

Its bad enough you charge £40 for the game...

 

[lipe123]

wagan8r said:
Key words, "waiting until". Screw you, Activision.

Did you even read the first sentence of the paragraph?! It clearly states that its NOT activision's words but some other guy's predictions.

BFBC is a whole different game with a slower pace and entirely other feel to it. Just silly to compare all FPS games as the same thing.

And unbalanced, where do you get that from?

Sounds like a whole lot of folks that suck at FPS'es in general bashing COD

Black ops single player is kinda boring (with all the stupid cut scenes and forced slow movement in levels) but the multiplayer is freaking amazing!

 

[Guest]

screw you activision, there is no way i will pay for that, consider all of your games i own headed back down to gamestop for a trade in on something that doesn't have your name(s) attached

 

[Guest]

When this happens (and it likely will), it won't stay relegated to Activision titles. As a business model, if it proves to be profitable, you will see all publishers jump on that band wagon - simple money making economics.

Now I don't mind a company/business trying different things to make a buck, they're a business, that's what they do...but as a consumer, they better damn well make it worth it if I'm to buy the product/service. Extra armor, skins, maps and other things like that is really pushing it IMHO if they consider any monthly membership cost above $10.

 

[Guest]

Multi is amazing? is this your first time playing an fps? Ohhhi forgot they put in this cool dive if you prone while running...big whoop for 2 seconds. Why can't i play multi with me and ALL my friends on the same team? Its kind of hard to be sitting next to my friend and get yelled at for killing him, or when 2 of us are on one team and the other 4 just waste us in a hail of bullets

MW2 was okay, while CoD4 remains the best, i have some regrets for owning anything after CoD4 but i could live with it....if they ever make another fps i'm waiting until the seond patch to see if its worth buying

 

[Guest]

CoD Black Ops is the worst CoD game ever... seriously the singeplayer is easy/boring and whatever and the multiplayer has so many bugs and in general the graphics are very bad...

 

[Classic Rock]

Personally, with every release of Call of Duty after COD4, I have been disappointed. The games seem, to me, to be getting worse instead of better. Even after buying Black ops I am drawn back to COD4. Then I hear something like "Call of duty is going to be pay to play, like WoW" and I think to myself:

"Why should I bother anymore?" I am already paying $100 and coming away disappointed.

Quote from Article:

Pachter claims the monetization scheme will begin with a cheap premium membership that provides virtual goods such as special weapons and armor. That will escalate to a more expensive subscription that grants access to map packs and eventually, when the time is right, he says Activision will offer an " all access pass" to play games like COD, WoW and SC2.

What I understand from this is that Activision will first allow people to buy weapons that should have been in the game, then they will move on to only allowing the people who have paid (or are willing to pay) the ability to download new maps, and then they will make the game(Or perhaps the next one) pay to play only.

I don't know about everyone else, but if that happens I will not be playing anymore COD games. It's not as though Activision even needs the extra money to stay afloat, read this if you want to have an idea of how much Activision is making:

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news...010-will-be-activisions-most-profitable-year/

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

No big loss if they charge for online multiplayer. I only do single player in FPS games. As for Black Ops single player campaign, I rate it about average. Could have been much better polished but then again, I've seen worse FPSs too.

 

[Guest]

well they've already screwed off-line console players. . .

anything is possible with Activision.

perhaps they should spend less money on Hollywood bozos and create a better product.

 

[edison5do]

More and more bad new about call of duty... after MW and MW2, and the reespawn ****, activision is on the way to **** this up like they are use to do it...

 

[gingerbill]

If they charge any sort of subscription then i will never play it again , its a half decent shooter but nothing special i'll simply move on to another game and never buy COD again. Cant they just accept making a billion of it and be happy about it rather than trying to screw people out of more money?

Next we will be hearing about how its optional and wont affect the game , yea right .

 

[MrAnderson]

If they have a subscription to add to multiplayer fine... but charging to play multiplyer is just nuts. I still feel that way even when xbox live did it... but they have a large network.

The next issue us polarization of all the game publishers mutiplayer subscriptions. if they are going to do this I think we need to start seeing multiplatform discounts for games. I have to sometimes but PS3, 360, and PC versions of games to play with different groups of friends. Of course this is a very ultra rare occassion... and sometimes the purchases is staggered over time... but if they can link all the games to an account over all platforms I think we should be allowed to get major discounts on the title as a pack. They can work out the details of how along with their scheme to charge us for online play because they are not getting a peice of MS pie. Boo-hoo.

 

[Guest]

OH QUIT PISSING ABOUT COD BEING BAD. You clearly don't have CoD7. The graphics are great, albeit demanding. The multiplayer is amazing. The game is very well balanced and Treyarch actually LISTENED to the consumer for once and included things that the consumer wanted. Does the game have a few wrinkles to iron out? Sure, but it's been out for less then a month. So get the game, or at least play at your friends house, and then criticize it.

 

[Burty117]

Guest said:
OH QUIT PISSING ABOUT COD BEING BAD. You clearly don't have CoD7. The graphics are great, albeit demanding. The multiplayer is amazing. The game is very well balanced and Treyarch actually LISTENED to the consumer for once and included things that the consumer wanted. Does the game have a few wrinkles to iron out? Sure, but it's been out for less then a month. So get the game, or at least play at your friends house, and then criticize it.

And you clearly don't play very good FPS's

 

[Burty117]

Also to add look how bad the user ratings for this game is

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/call-of-duty-black-ops

You can't honestly say it is a good game?
I haven't bought it myself for the pure fact the ratings are a little too low for me to warrent buying it but I have played it round a friends house and it really isn't anything special.

If they seriously consider charging for Multiplayer subscriptions then it will seriously show the most dumb people on this planet!

think about it. An average guy goes to a game shop, buys a new console and a copy of COD to go with it.

then buys his first month subscription for a game that isn't really very good? at best average.

I mean thats just stupidity beyond belief!

I could understand if it was a bit like WoW where you get new things to do every day and massive patches plus a deep leveling system etc...

but its COD! this really will be the end of the series...

 

[Guest]

pachter has no idea what he is talking about... Blizzard will always maintain it's independence from Activision. ALWAYS.

 

[Guest]

BFBC2 it is then