Throughout the course of 2010, Activision has been hinting at the possibility of a subscription fee for Call of Duty. It initially came to the public eye when their CEO, Bobby Kotick, mentioned that he was in favor of adding something similar to the franchise. Later in the year, Kotick repealed that statement, and said that it wouldn’t be best for gamers. Speculation concerning Kotick’s most recent statement left us to ask: Was that statement made simply to get gamers to bat an eye, or is Activision serious about throwing this idea out? Well, analysts at Wedbush Securities seem to think the subscription fee is by no means gone, and is coming very soon.
Within the next three months, Wedbush Securities’ analysts expect Activision to launch a second tier of Call of Duty online multiplayer. “Activision remains a top pick, primarily due to the company’s potential to create and monetize a second tier of multiplayer online gaming for its Call of Duty franchise,” stated Wedbush Securities’ analysts in their January 2011 newsletter. “We expect this to occur during the first quarter of 2011.” What makes this claim stand out is that Wedbush analysts are being rather specific with their timing, and seem very confident in their claim.
If this turns out to be legitimate, Activision will launch a second tier of online multiplayer for the franchise, coinciding with their community plan as of March 2010, “[to deliver] high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.”
Although each Call of Duty title has generated considerable revenue for Activision, the publishers have frequently mentioned the inability to get more Call of Duty content released, with the map packs being the only way so far. By releasing a second tier of online multiplayer, this would enable Activision to sell the Call of Duty brand in ways limited to their current multiplayer setup. A second tier would also coincide with Kotick’s desire to bring Call of Duty to the MMO world, which is much more realistic granted their merge with Blizzard Entertainment in 2008.
Despite these rumors and possibilities, Activision has mentioned time and again that their boxed retail copies will never carry a subscription fee. That means Call of Duty gamers who are happy with what they have now can continue to enjoy it at no additional cost. The addition of something new to the Call of Duty brand is almost certain, but it’s what that is that’s the question now. Will Call of Duty become an MMO? If analysts at Wedbush Securities is correct, this question will be answered within the following months.
Fell sorry for those addicted to that boring COD online. Battle*free*field all the way!
~d
Battlefield has Battlefield Heroes which uses micro-transactions. I think that would be the best way to go if Activision does something like this.
Also CODBO>BC2. 😉
“CODBO>BC2”
….dude…. dude, dude, dude, dude, dude if I could climb though your monitor right now and slap you, I would.
Sorry One but BFBC2 destroys COD in ALL aspects.
BFBC2: The MATURE online shooter.
I knew something didn’t feel right about COD. The way CoD4 was a p2p connection lag fest and how the graphics have hardly improved over the series compared to other recent games, I figured the devs cared more about the money than their consumers. Good developers would have given the option of dedicated servers earlier in this generation’s series before huge petitions had to be signed to convince them and would work hard to make every aspect of the game worthy of GOTY, and meanwhile the COD devs feel like they can do whatever the hell they want as long as it’s cool and follows the formula and their new COD will be bound to get nominated anyway.
No, just no.
If they honestly want to do a Call of Duty MMO, they should put it on the PC as a separate title, not try to shoe horn it into a main installment. PS+ was fine to me considering that it didn’t effect the online features made available already on PSN, but if games starts to have options of free online and paid online, I will be infuriated.
What Activision fails to realize is that considering that they are a giant in the gaming industry, other companies will probably follow. Tagging in online subscriptions is no exception.