It’s ”part of the package” and something they will avoid monetizing, not including map packs of course - that’s sheer gold. Acti dismiss expert claims of subs.
Analysts have been saying that Activision wants a piece of the Xbox Live pie because they get nothing from the Gold membership subscriptions, which are essential to play Call of Duty multiplayer on Xbox 360, or indeed any game’s multiplayer.
”Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no,” stated CEO Eric Hirshberg. We should ignore the rumblings of those fancy pants analysts on this one.
”The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience and we’ll never charge for that. It’s not going to be something we’ll attempt to monetize; it’s part of the package.”
”Nothing we or anyone else tries is going to work if it doesn’t have tremendous value for people and add a tremendous value to the gaming experience,” he continued.
”He’s probably looking at meta-trends in the world and in culture about online services and new ways things should be monetized from Netflix to cloud-based computing,” said Hirshberg, referring to analyst Michael Pachter.
”So there are certainly a lot of behavioural shifts towards long-standing online relationships… But at the end of the day, all I’m trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer.” It’s almost written in blood.
Bobby Kotick said in September that consumers shouldn’t have to pay extra for online services when they’ve just bought a new game. ”That’s what people are paying their $60 for,” he explained. ”They get a game that has a lot of replayability.”
There you have it - Call of Duty won’t get molested by subscriptions.
