NEWS
Modern Warfare 2, COD: Black Ops Not Going Pay To Play
By Tom Ivan
July 20, 2010
Activision-owned developers Infinity Ward and Treyarch have stated that consumers won’t be required to “pay to play” Modern Warfare 2 or COD: Black Ops online.
The former has sold over 20 million copies and a – presumably fake – video did the rounds on the internet yesterday suggesting a subscription fee unique to the game’s online mode is to be introduced.
“Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they,” Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling said on Twitter.
His message was followed by one from Treyarch community manager Josh Olin. “No, you will not have to 'Pay to Play' #CODBlackOps Multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed,” he said.
COD: Black Ops is due for release on November 9, and Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has said that pre-orders for the game are tracking ahead of 2009’s record breaking Modern Warfare 2.
While it appears neither game will carry a unique subscription fee, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed a strong desire to better monetise the franchise, which racked up 1.7 billon hours of online play between November 2009 and April 2010.
He said recently that he thinks consumers are “clamouring” for an online, subscription-based COD service. "I would have Call Of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow,” he said, when asked what one thing he would like to change about his business in an instant.
The executive also said that he’s frustrated by existing business models that see companies like Microsoft benefiting most from the success of online third party content. “We’ve heard that 60 per cent of [Microsoft’s] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call Of Duty,” Kotick said, before pledging to support new gaming devices that give third party publishers a bigger slice of the online pie.
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Comments
Keeyop said:
COD: Black Ops will have a subscription model around $50 a year (just not sure what extra you will get for this).
lupinsensei said:
Where did you hear this? I don't doubt it, it's a cash cow that bobby's gonna milk dry. Any links? I'd trawl through the net myself on another day, but currently fighting for a signal due to tunnel/mountain range vs iPhone hell.
Keeyop said:
can't provide links I'm afraid, but it did come firsthand from inside the empire.
jb1 said:
If that turns out to be true, i predict it will kill the franchise. No infinity ward plus pay to play plus the franchise getting stale anyway equals badness.
Keeyop said:
from what I've heard it will be pushed as a 'value added' subscription model as opposed to straight pay to play. but they're still tinkering with what you would get extra.
jb1 said:
It certainly sounds true :)
Gex4212 said:
while im not denying the success of MW2..... the singleplayer was great....the multiplayer was terrible....the learning and skill curve pretty much became a straight line
MilesMayhem said:
just my opinion but all those denials say to me is you wont be paying to play for current MW online or the very next (nearly finished) MW release.
If MW3 goes pay to play I think it will need some kind of hook for its playerbase that they haven't seen before, what that would be I have no idea but maybe some kind of persistent online game mode.
If a MW game comes out with a subscription charge and it's just the same as before, they will just stay with the last one.
ironman tetsuo said:
A lot of people only bought MW2 for the multiplayer and gave up on the single player campaign early on (if they even bothered at all) , should we all be entitled to a refund on the £55 we spent that somehow according to Kotick, doesn't cover the cost of playing online??
schnide said:
But we all know that if they could, they would.