Activision hints at charging money for Call of Duty online

link to article: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1044965p1.html

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 montization 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.

Another brilliant marketing move by Activision. I wholly refuse to continue playing Modern Warfare 2 until I am charged money for it. I demand to pay.

This is why consoles should've been made illegal after the NES. Consolites will accept anything and its ruining gaming.

lol @ activision, ruin it, please do. ugh this makes me want to throw up.

Just when I though Craptivision cannot make me think worse of thy.

Cant be serious... Although this is Activison we are talking about here.

It is people keep buying COD in droves.

The majority of you here say you wont buy in so you wont support Activision. But lookie here, in the "real world" it is the fastest and biggest selling game ever. So what happened to all the boycotts?

If they charge for online, I am willing to bet many people who do not reside in System Wars wouldn't mind paying top dollar just to play the multiplayer.

It is people keep buying COD in droves.

The majority of you here say you wont buy in so you wont support Activision. But lookie here, in the "real world" it is the fastest and biggest selling game ever. So what happened to all the boycotts?

If they charge for online, I am willing to bet many people who do not reside in System Wars wouldn't mind paying top dollar just to play the multiplayer.

Wait, what? Where the hell are you getting your information Activision? Core gamers willing to pay fees for online gaming for a specific game? I think you dramatically misinterpreted what was said from all themoney you got from MW2 filling up your ears

Come on! Were already paying for xbox live! Charge the ps3 users and make it free for us!Justinge3

[QUOTE="Justinge3"]Come on! Were already paying for xbox live! Charge the ps3 users and make it free for us!kulmiye

I am willing to Buy a game from whoever makes it as long as it looks good. I am even willing to pay for DLC as long as it looks like it's worth the price. I am not, and will never be, willing to pay to play online. Be it one fee for all games ala XBL. Or an MMO like WOW or FF11. I would deffinatly not pay for COD.

Next Activitsion is gonna charge you for the game then they're gonna leave the game unfinished but put the end of the game up as DLC. This is getting out of hand.

Activision get on my nerves, they are so up themselves. What is the matter with them.

They think they are so good, they won't even reduce the price of their call of duty games either. I'm sorry CoD 4 is 2 years old, i'm not paying £30 for a 2 year old game.

Just check out their prices on steam, Call of Duty and United Offensive £14.99 each. I just ordered BOTH COMBINED for £5.

Now they want to charge for a multiplayer FPS :?

I don't think many 360 users are gonna pay live fee's+a fee for a single game.

This is repulsive now. Activision is officially the evil empire of gaming. I cannot wait to see the "Hero" franchise die off, and them see their margins reduce drastically. What makes them think their games are so superior that they can keep ****ing us gamers out of more money? Unfortunately, two great developers are on their leash, so we have no choice to purchase games from them. Theirs no way in hell Im paying a monthly fee for COD, Diablo, or anything else of theirs that I like. The Hero franchise can go **** itself, its crap anyway compared to RB.

If Activision try and pull this off then they will hand the ball over to EA and Dice in a spectacular way.

CoD is good but I wouldn't pay a monthly sub for it.

It's all peerto peer + the match making and stuff is done by Xbox live which I'm paying for anyway.

They can go hang! Battlefield will be my game of choice again.

Before people fly off the handle, this could mean several things. I doubt they go to a subscription based service. COD isn't that popular. I do believe they can provide extra content to stimulate interest in the multiplayer.

Before people fly off the handle, this could mean several things. I doubt they go to a subscription based service. COD isn't that popular. I do believe they can provide extra content to stimulate interest in the multiplayer.

De_Bears