'Call Of Duty' charging by end of 2010?

[klbs-RFC 21]

Fucking better not We pay enough for the game and map packs.

Money grabbing bastards

Activision will start charging gamers for playing the Call Of Duty series online by the end of the year, according to analyst Michael Pachter.

Speaking to Industry Gamers, Pachter said that consumers are increasingly shifting from packaged video games to online multiplayer, which they can enjoy for free.

He called on publishers to create a business model that "captures the value created by the multiplayer experience" or face declining revenues.

"While the shift has been great for consumers, who are enjoying an unprecedented, and largely free, game experience, it has been devastating for publishers and shareholders, who are seeing sales and profits decline," he said.

"We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game, to take the first step to address monetisation of multiplayer.

"It is too early to tell whether that will be a monthly subscription, tournament entry fees, micro-transaction fees, or a combination of all three, but we expect to see the company take some action by year-end, when Call of Duty: Black Ops launches."

Last month, Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick said that if he could have one wish, he would make Call Of Duty "an online subscription service tomorrow".

Pachter said that Activison can tap into plenty of experience in creating successful subscription models via its partner Blizzard, which runs the World Of Warcraft series.

"It is likely that Activision will ease the pain of consumers, and will continue to offer some form of free multiplayer, at least for a while, but we believe it is imperative that the company begin to capture some value from the huge number of hours spent - 1.75 billion hours on Xbox Live alone through mid-April and we estimate that this figure is approaching four billion hours combined through today on Xbox Live and PSN," he said.

"We are quick to point out that the average single player game has an expected play time of under 30 hours, suggesting that a staggering 133 million units of equivalent game play have been spent (so far) playing Call Of Duty online, with Activision only seeing revenues from the original 20m units sold, plus an estimated eight million map packs sold."

[Bazza 21]

You can understand why, to a certian degree.

If the company isn't making money by people not buying new games or material because they're busy playing free online games then they don't have the same money available for new developement etc.

I'd love for it to stay free and I'm not so sure I'd play as much if it wasn't but I supose that's their aim.

[BasileBoliSoup 9]

£5 a month and I'd do it, but £10 or £15 and it's a no from me. If they have 6 million players across the consoles then that is £30 million a month.

[Liam_RFC 238]

No chance ad pay for it we pay enough for the game plus payin even more for the map back where they are just givin us ones from COD 4 with a couple of new ones robbin bastards

[klbs-RFC 21]

E.A Sports and all the other top game makers are keeping a close eye on how this goes. If this happens then you can expect to pay to play with other top games like FIFA, Halo, Grand Theft Auto and all the other top games online.

[AW-WATP 112]

Hopefully no

[Orangeclement 581]

aye good luck with that , pay £45 per game and a fee ontop of that for online play ? aye they can go take a flying fuck .

[Papa Sasac 164]

Plus the 2 or 3 map packs that will be released, at £10+ for each one. The thing is though, all the die hard fans will still rush out and buy first day it comes out.

[Sgt. Pepper 117]

I won't be paying money to play online.

[Ace 3,556]

Wonder if this will apply to PS3 only, at the moment there is no cost to going online except for your own broadband charges.

Xbox charges £40 per year, there is no way you could add on specific game charges to that.

[j1mgg 3,766]

I think this is a joke as we aint playing free games online, we have already purchased the game which means it is ot free. If you could DL the online version of it and then pay £5 a month then fair enough but I am not paying £45 for a game that I barely play once offline then paying more to play it online.

I hope they bring this in and everyone goes to medal of honour.

And where the fuck do they get their 30 hours of offline playtime, it is more like 6hrs because it is so short. So, if no ones plays online you wouldnt make any money from your overpriced map packs which are basically £20

[J-Maestro 11,873]

With it being a monthly charge they really would have ramp up the content available, with MMO's there really is so much more content in them to be paid for whereas a online FPS is a completely different story. They would IMO have to be releasing new weapons, maps etc. quite often to get me to pay for it.

[MurphyRFC 19]

Wonder if this will apply to PS3 only, at the moment there is no cost to going online except for your own broadband charges.

Xbox charges £40 per year, there is no way you could add on specific game charges to that.

There are games which already do this, that being MMO's and it can be expected though.

[Jeff crap in the head 120]

Il probably pay for it

[TheSponge 0]

Should be noted that this isn't the words of Activision but rather, Michael Pachter, an industry analyst. He's just suggesting that Activision start doing this given the fall in industry revenue this year (and that online games are suggested as a reason for this) - there has been no indication from Activision that this is something they are planning to do.

[klbs-RFC 21]

Should be noted that this isn't the words of Activision but rather, Michael Pachter, an industry analyst. He's just suggesting that Activision start doing this given the fall in industry revenue this year (and that online games are suggested as a reason for this) - there has been no indication from Activision that this is something they are planning to do.

Activision seems to be on quite a roll with pissing off their user base. Their newest declaration may top the heap: Activision wants to start charging an online fee to play their Call of Duty games, similar to World of Warcraft.

Speaking at BMO Capital Market Conference, the CFO of Activision Blizzard, Thomas Tippl, said, “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.”

While he admits it may be difficult to replicate the same format that World of Warcraft uses, there is no doubt that Tippl is looking forward to charging even more to play Activision’s games. I guess charging $60 for the games with a few $10 map packs thrown in isn’t enough…

[Guest SandyIniesta-Nordahl]

No chance.

[FatPirateHooker 141]

I'd agree with this tbh. Before Online playing became popular people would buy a game, complete it, then buy another. Currently you can buy CoD, complete the game, then sit and play the Multiplayer till your eyes bleed and its never repetative, never having to spend more money.

[DinViesel 399]

I'd agree with this tbh. Before Online playing became popular people would buy a game, complete it, then buy another. Currently you can buy CoD, complete the game, then sit and play the Multiplayer till your eyes bleed and its never repetative, never having to spend more money.

At the end of the day I've payed £45 already. That entitles me to play the game once or a billion times. They can go take a flying fuck to themselves.

[lidorfc 6,685]

I'd agree with this tbh. Before Online playing became popular people would buy a game, complete it, then buy another. Currently you can buy CoD, complete the game, then sit and play the Multiplayer till your eyes bleed and its never repetative, never having to spend more money.

At the end of the day I've payed £45 already. That entitles me to play the game once or a billion times. They can go take a flying fuck to themselves.

[barkie 201]

I'd agree with this tbh. Before Online playing became popular people would buy a game, complete it, then buy another. Currently you can buy CoD, complete the game, then sit and play the Multiplayer till your eyes bleed and its never repetative, never having to spend more money.

At the end of the day I've payed £45 already. That entitles me to play the game once or a billion times. They can go take a flying fuck to themselves.

45 quid plus 22 quid on maps so i will not be paying and subscription charges but i'm sure they have said there is no plans to start charging.

Plenty of other games to try if they do.

[j1mgg 3,766]

I would envisage someone else creating servers to host it on and using a method which is done on the xbox by missing out xbox live.

Basically they fool the xbox to think it is using a LAN and then you can play against people all over the world for free.

[Scott-RFC 308]

So you'd have COD online, 5 quid a month

I want FIFA online, another fiver

I buy 2 or 3 more games, thats 20-30 quid a month, Im payin nearly the price of a console each year for the right to play something Ive already paid for and own

I should add that Tiger Woods 2010 already charges for online play

[MartinGers93 388]

So you'd have COD online, 5 quid a month

I want FIFA online, another fiver

I buy 2 or 3 more games, thats 20-30 quid a month, Im payin nearly the price of a console each year for the right to play something Ive already paid for and own

I should add that Tiger Woods 2010 already charges for online play

They are all money grabbing bastards £45 for Modern Warfare 2 WTF. I know all EA games are like this from now on and no doubt COD will follow and so on because people will pay it stupidly because they have no choice if they want to play online.

[Boroboy 0]

The reason there is talk of charging I think is more for the preowned side, because this is becoming ever more popular then they feel it's a way to get money from someone not willing to pay the original over inflated price. That being said as long as it wasn't more than a 5iver a month I'd pay it