Kotick Wants Call of Duty Subscriptions "Tomorrow"

[Ozcar]

MF2 is hugely popular, mostly among teenage console players. Those have little thought to anything else than a moment's fun, and usually a steady stream of money pouring in from their parents. This is where Kotick wants to step in. Telling those kids "you know, from now on you have to pay to play" is not going to turn most of them away. Instead they will turn to their parents, cry and shout for a weekend and finally get the subscription. Kotick has triumphed.

Activision does know the value of it's CoD-franchise. Now, when most of the profits from selling actual copies of the game have gradually grown smaller and mappacks bring money in only on quite long intervals, it's a great move from Activision to start to charge the players for the online experience. I suppose this has been calculated by Activision quite a while ago. It simply is the best way to turn a low-profit old product into a money well that pumps millions of dollars each month to Activisions pockets.

I predict a shift in online FPS's in the near future. This shift will be most eminent on consoles when compared to PC's that still have a good, solid community around games such as CS, UT3 or TF2. Console games will start to target younger and younger groups as their audience, because with no gaming background Activision or some other publisher can set the rules by which they play. They can't abandon the game because they know of no other possibility, and have no choice but to pay up the increasing fees. Hardcore, community-oriented FPS's will not die, however. The market for new FPS releases for the PC is large enough to be profitable, and with companies like Valve with a good history and large resources the PC will continue to live, but as a separate world from console FPS's. This change is like the evolution of driving games, which has separated into arcade (BurnOut, Blur) and simulation (Forza, Gran Turismo) branches with little communication between these two poles. FPS is about to experience the same and divide into casual and truly hardcore gaming.

 

[SnipErlite]

I think our players would just have so much of a more compelling experience.

Eh?

"audiences are clamoring for it."

Eh??

But this isn't just about making money

................. That makes a change.

Seriously, this can't and won't end well. *sighs* I genuinly would not be surprised if enraged gamers find Kotick and lynch him in the next few days. I honestly would not register any surprise.....

When even your 'fans' don't like what you're doing, you know you've done it wrong.

 

[RabidusUnus]

It's such a shame that a franchise as original and ground breaking as CoD has been lost to-
Wait. Nevermind.

 

[sunpop]

Then suddenly Kotick realizes there are plenty of other fps that are identical to cod except they wont cost you past 60$ then the further rip off of 20$ for a few more maps that should be free.

Why can't everyone be like tripwire and just charge a small price for a game then update it for free?

 

[wonkify]

OT: I think I will slowly but surely quit gaming. This, "let's ruthlessly extort the gaming crowd until we cause another Video Game Crash" is just stupid. I mean, you pay the full price for the game($60), then pay for DLCs(~$20), map packs(~$15), the online subscription(~$20/month) and the extra in-game items(~$20) too. That's a total of around $120 plus a monthly fee of $20. And that's only one game. My goddamn rent is lower than that.

No matter, after the second Video Game Crash, it'll be a bleak world for us...

A long-time friend of mine who is also in the video game industry has said similar sentiments. The current game industry is strangling itself for a variety of reasons, sexism and greed included. He's also become so dissatisfied with the current trend in gaming that he hasn't bought a new game in years, but he's getting to the point that he may quit being a gamer entirely save for the little things he does for the company he works for. It is quite sad for someone who was a gamer their entire life.

Well, I'm only on the outskirts of the video game industry, I'm a games journalist, and really, my whining about prices and exploitation is moot, since I get my games for free anyway, so I don't wanna sound like a hypocrite, but this really bugs me. I mean, big console companies are shit out of ideas, just like game developers. Everybody is trying to play it safe, there are virtually no original titles on the market now, just copies of clones and sequels. Shooty Shooter: The Shootening, Gritty Space Marine Adventures 8, War Propaganda: Modern Brainwashing 2 and of course Gimmicky Motion-Controller Game #96: Flail Your Hands Around Like A Retard.

What did we see this E3? Sony and Microsoft, out of utter lack of ideas and willingness to innovate, they fielded their own set of gimmicky Wii-Mote clones, and now they want us to buy almost the exact same gimmicky motion controllers with the exact same set of games as what Nintendo fielded four years ago. Oh, and there is the 3D hype. Technology, that the vast majority of gamers won't be able to get for another four years at least. Am I the only one who considers these a fucking catastrophe?

Agree. Agree. Agree.
And thank you to all the above. My heartfelt agreement. My hearfelt grief at the truth of the above. NONE of this is anything to be happy about, quite the contrary.

I would give a kidney for something with 1/10 the creativity and daring of "No One Lives Forever" today.

 

[Ninonybox_v1legacy]

how would us haveing to pay for it make it a better experiance or what us gamers truely want.....they are retarded.

 

[Atmos Duality]

*double nested snip*

Agree. Agree. Agree.
And thank you to all the above. My heartfelt agreement. My hearfelt grief at the truth of the above. NONE of this is anything to be happy about, quite the contrary.

I would give a kidney for something with 1/10 the creativity and daring of "No One Lives Forever" today.

All of that. I haven't been able to really get excited about a game in years because of this nonsense.
Marketing has replaced innovation. Game publishers are cutting out parts of a finished product to sell for more profit later (DLC) or put you at their mercy (Ubisoft DRM, mandatory remote server connections).
Despite all the naysaying, it really does seem as though the industry is coasting purely on graphical presentation and gimmick now.

Consider how many generic shooters I've seen over the last 3 years..
-Gears of War (two of them)
-Halo (two, soon to be three titles)
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (two titles)
-Army of Two (two titles)
-Battlefield (numerous titles)
-MAG
-Killzone 2
-Haze
-Wolfenstein
-F.E.A.R. 2
-Crytek Games (Far Cry 2 and Crysis: Warhead)
-Unreal Tournament 3 (there are a few Unreal 3 Engine games on this list with more to come)

And those are the largely generic titles, nevermind others like Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, and Fallout 3.

Most of those are the big makers and shakers today. Yes, some are utter failures, but just take the top half of that list and you have a huge chunk of modern gaming profits.

Still not satisfied? Just look around this very forum.
Do a search for "remake", or hell, look at all the remake topics that pop up.
Each and every one of those games has already been done. I would like to think that they are being remade because they are great titles that deserve another chance in the spotlight, but I'm not one for self-delusion. No, they are being remade because they are guaranteed sales.
The market is in this self destructive cycle of "We need money, lets make new games! But we can't take a risk on something that isn't proven, so lets just do what has already been done and *claim* that it is new!". Because of this, we have extravagant marketing campaigns for incredibly generic titles. They hype the shit out of their product because they KNOW it won't sell otherwise.

Even that small hope, the 3DS, has this problem, and it isn't even out yet!
Nintendo's 3DS is an impressive piece of hardware (I admit, it's been a decade since I gave a shit about a console for its hardware) but look at that lineup; the big draws are currently mostly remakes. I can name four major title remakes now and at least one franchise reboot, nevermind how shamelessly Nintendo milks its own mothership titles. I can't even look at a Mario game anymore.

And don't get me started on how dead PC gaming is, or I will be here all night.

It's truly sad to see my favorite hobby shrivel up and die, but perhaps it is for the better.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

I'm convinced Kotick is Moot's evil-er twin brother.

 

[coldfrog]

Am I the only one who thinks the is the first sense he's made in ages. Now, this is assuming this service is DIFFERENT from the already existing multiplayer, but it's something worth thinking about. As stated,

the MMOFPS genre that hasn't typically lit the online PC world on fire could be a perfect fit for the millions of people playing Call of Duty on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Done right, this could be something other MMOFPS games haven't had - an already existing fanbase and world to build the new content around. Albeit it's mostly based on the real world, so this could be tough, but I think it's got a chance.

That is, as long as these are the lines he wants to go in. If he just wants to charge for the existing service on the pretense of providing extra DLC or something like that, pleh. It's unclear enough though, and he even used the word fun with a positive connotation, that I think it's worth at least giving him a shot.

 

[teisjm]

Well, seeing how most of us were dumb enough to pay more than normal full game price for MW2 and that the dreaded and hated IW-net didn't stop MW2 from beeing the best sellign game ever, it's no wonder that he thinks he can treat us like dumbfucks with shit for brains who'll throw money at anything, cause hoenstly, he can.

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

dont hate guys he just needs more money for the death star once its built im sure these subscriptions and 70euros for a game will go away.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I don't play any Call of Duty games but 2 and WaW anyways, so I should be fine.

Unfortunately, a lot of people I know would pay for it.

 

[nathan-dts]

Everyone will just move on to Medal of Honour, he knows that right?

 

[ShinyMagnum]

anyone up for some battlefield bad company 2 then?

Yep, brb.

 

[subtlefuge]

That's fine with me, I parted with my copy for 900 Goozex points a while back.

If they made this subscription service $10 a month, it would have to have new game modes, additional weapons, and added maps every week for me to not scoff at the idea. It's ludicrous.

 

[MortisLegio]

well... its a good time as any
*kills Kotick*
there, problem solved

 

[Twilight.falls]

Well, I've never cared for Call of Duty, but a subscription fee for it? Forget any future attempts to try it out. MMOs I can somewhat understand a fee for, but an FPS? Ridiculous.

 

[LifeSarcastic]

Well, I'm officially scared now. After the hideous bug ridden mess that is Modern Warfare 2 released, I realized Call of Duty had become the shooting game equivalent to Madden: overrated and released yearly. If this subscription plan does happen, Black Ops will be the last COD I buy (If it's a balanced game). Anyone remember when Call of Duty used to be about the single-player.

 

[CompanionCube]

If there's a subscription, I'm definitely not getting it. I see why WoW has a subscription, the dev team is super dedicated.