Activision Adding Paid Services & Online Monetization to Call of Duty


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Activision Hints at Call of Duty Online Plans

Gamers demanding additional services and innovations, publisher says.

by Jim Reilly

US, November 12, 2009 - The online business models for many of Activision's key franchises could start to change in the near future.

During today's BMO Capital Markets Conference, CFO of Activision Blizzard Thomas Tippl was asked if the successful World of Warcraft online business model will ever translate into the publisher's other major franchises, such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. While Tippl said WoW's model is difficult to replicate, players should expect new monetization models for its other titles soon enough.

"It's definitely an aspiration that we see potential in, particularly as we look at different business models to monetize the online gameplay," said Tippl. "There's good knowledge exchange happening between the Blizzard folks and our online guys."

"We have great experience also on Call of Duty with the success we had on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. A lot of that knowledge is getting actually built into the Battle.Net platform and the design of that," he added. "I think it's been mutually beneficial, and you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty."

Tippl added there is a demand from its core fanbase willing to pay for additional services and content.

"Our gamers are telling us there's lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they're not getting yet. From what we see so far, additional content, as well as all the services Blizzard is offering, is that there is demand from the core gamers to pay up for that," Tipple explained.

A supposed leaked online survey from June possibly hints at what Tippl is driving at. The survey centered around the idea of a monthly service that gives subscribers additional multiplayer and gameplay enhancements for future Call of Duty titles.

Source: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1044965p1.html

Edited by Audioboxer
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CoD 7: $79.99

Online play: free

Playing online with a weapon other than a knife: $3.99 (each)

Bullets for that weapon: $9.99 (clip)

The fact that some of you tards will pay it anyway because it's CoD: priceless

Better have a Mastercard

Edited by soniqstylz
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If they implament this bull**** I will never buy a CoD game or most likely an Activision game again. I love the BF series more anyways, so it wouldn't be a big loss from this POS money grubbing company.

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I bet they'd allow you to buy all ranks/weapons/perks for a fee too :p

Ah well, this was always the way it was going to go. It'll either be a huge success or a failure. Either way, COD IS the de facto MP shooter. There'll be plenty of people who sign up for it.

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Interesting, i wonder if they will add dedicated server support for additional cost?

Oh my god that would be absolutely hil-ari-ous.

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Oh my god that would be absolutely hil-ari-ous.

They'd get strung out by every other publisher for a year...

Then they'd all jump on the bandwagon the year after.

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Note in other articles it says 'Franchise'. It doesn't mean that current releases will be affected hopefully. If MW2 changes to something like this I'm gonna laugh at how many copies will get traded in :rofl:

This has really annoyed me. So much I actually want to write a formal letter to tell them where to shove it. Yes, it may work for MMO's, but not for FPS's because of the fact an FPS is a jump right in game that doesn't really require commitment. An MMO requires commitment to keep your character levelling and gaining new items etc.

Microsoft and Sony will probably say something about this regardless, saying that they can't have this running on their consoles because 'They're already paying for LIVE' or 'We want to keep PSN free' respectively.

This is just ridiculous, I just hope the EU has a whine about it and charges them with something. :D

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Note in other articles it says 'Franchise'. It doesn't mean that current releases will be affected hopefully. If MW2 changes to something like this I'm gonna laugh at how many copies will get traded in :rofl:

This has really annoyed me. So much I actually want to write a formal letter to tell them where to shove it. Yes, it may work for MMO's, but not for FPS's because of the fact an FPS is a jump right in game that doesn't really require commitment. An MMO requires commitment to keep your character levelling and gaining new items etc.

Microsoft and Sony will probably say something about this regardless, saying that they can't have this running on their consoles because 'They're already paying for LIVE' or 'We want to keep PSN free' respectively.

This is just ridiculous, I just hope the EU has a whine about it and charges them with something. :D

"Microsoft and Sony will probably say something about this regardless, saying that they can't have this running on their consoles because 'They're already paying for LIVE'"

Are you kidding? As long as they get a cut they don't care. Look at the amount of games where the PC version gets updates for free that the 360 or PS3 versions make you buy...

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To bad a few million dumb people will cough up the price anyways, keeping the machine running.

Oh well, **** Activision and their games. I'll keep playing my BF2 with the 1.5 patch (which included the booster packs for FREE and has dedicated servers).

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This has really annoyed me. So much I actually want to write a formal letter to tell them where to shove it. Yes, it may work for MMO's, but not for FPS's because of the fact an FPS is a jump right in game that doesn't really require commitment. An MMO requires commitment to keep your character levelling and gaining new items etc.

Bingo, though getting a customer to pay a monthly sub for a service maybe a holy grail for most gaming businesses. It only works for an MMO. Yes I love stats tracking, random stupid titles, icons, upgrades and perks. But charging for it?

DICE already did most of this. For free. In 2005 (Battlefield 2).

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With Bad Company 2 on its way, I think this would be a bad idea. People will just migrate to that instead (I'd hope).

I, for one, won't be getting a FPS that incorporates micro-transactions.

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With Bad Company 2 on its way, I think this would be a bad idea. People will just migrate to that instead (I'd hope).

I, for one, won't be getting a FPS that incorporates micro-transactions.

They wouldn't add it to MW2 but they will be adding it to future CoD's though.

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If BC2 does poorly they would likely avoid this idea, but clearly the guy (can't recall his name) in charge of Activision right now is all about exploiting gamers wallets in the most obvious ways.

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Either way, Games for Windows Live tried this on PC. Look what happend, it became Free. Oh what a surprise.

Isn't that a clear enough message it won't work Activision? If Microsoft can't make a successful paid gaming platform on their operating system, you can't either.

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They wouldn't add it to MW2 but they will be adding it to future CoD's though.

Even so, with how BC2 is looking and the good reviews that it will likely get, I can see it being an even bigger player by the time that the next CoD is out.

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CoD 7: $79.99

Online play: free

Playing online with a weapon other than a knife: $3.99 (each)

Bullets for that weapon: $9.99 (clip)

The fact that some of you tards will pay it anyway because it's CoD: priceless

Better have a Mastercard

Haha good one.. I think this would be a terrible idea and bad for business... I think they are looking for the stock price to go back to 2000 levels.. They're charging 60 bucks for the basic game.. isn't that enough money for these fools? Soon each game will cost as much as a console at this rate

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what exactly does a MMO offer that users pay for that other games don't? I can only think of a server that can host thousands at a time.... other than that, there is no feature worth paying after the price of the game....

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