No Subscriptions for Call of Duty Multiplayer, Says Activision

[Logan Westbrook]

No Subscriptions for Call of Duty Multiplayer, Says Activision

Pretty much everyone involved with Call of Duty has issued statements saying that there are no plans to implement fees for multiplayer.

The idea that Call of Duty will have pay-to-play multiplayer is a persistent one that gained new momentum yesterday when a video [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102171-Rumor-Evidence-of-Modern-Warfare-Memberships-Uncovered] surfaced seeming to suggest that a membership was required to play Modern Warfare 2 online.

But Activision, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward have all come out and said that there were no plans to charge for Call of Duty multiplayer. Activision's Dan Amrich called the subscription message a "glitch" in a post on his blog [http://oneofswords.com/2010/07/mw2-subscriptions-nope/], and Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling said on Twitter [http://twitter.com/fourzerotwo/status/18944759056] that no one would ever have to pay for Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.

Treyarch's Josh Olin, also via Twitter [http://twitter.com/JD_2020/status/18946905657], added that the Call of Duty: Black Ops' multiplayer was free as well. Finally, Activision issued an official statement to IGN [http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/110/1107019p1.html]: "Reports of a subscription membership in Modern Warfare 2 are not true," the statement read. "Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer."

At first glance this seems to be at odds with comments Activision CEO Bobby Kotick made last month [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101503-Kotick-Wants-Call-of-Duty-Subscriptions-Tomorrow], saying that he'd like to see Call of Duty subscriptions as soon as possible. But it appears that what Kotick was referring to was more like a COD MMOG, rather than simply assigning a charge to what has been free in the past. Some analysts are saying that publishers will have to start charging for online play [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102117-Pachter-Publishers-Need-to-Charge-for-Online-Play] eventually, but it seems that for Call of Duty at least, it's not coming in the near future.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/youll-never-have-to-pay-to-play-cod]


Permalink

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

What about the game AFTER Black Ops?

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Don't forget, Developers are allowed to lie to us. David Jaffe brought that to our attention, and now I'm hesitant to believe what I see.

Calumon: I don't know what to believe.

 

[UnravThreads]

Next week's headline:

Activision to charge for MW2 (or Black Ops) multiplayer

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Well seeing as I've trasnfered over to Bad Company 2/Medal of Honor this wont effect me but I reckon my mates will be happy until Call of Duty 10: Future Spacewarfare starts charging.

If Activision are SOOOOOO desperate, can't they just do a WOW version of Call of Duty? Where there's just multiplayer with crap loads of maps, challenges, customisability to characters and tons of past, present and future weapons and then charge whatever a year on PC, and how many Microsoft points/PSN points for consoles.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Thank Christ...
That's all I have to say.

 

[Knight Templar]

"Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer"
Activision not gutting consumers at any opportunity? Somethings amiss, hang on...
They plan to implement subscriptions for single player! The bastards!

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

"Has no plans" is just company lingo for "still on the drawing board". All that Activision has really confirmed is that they haven't finalized the subscription plan yet.

 

[enzilewulf]

"But it appears that what Kotick was referring to was more like a COD MMOG"

What the hell? You have one of those right now.. maybe I am just not understanding this right.

What ever Kotick needs to shut it. What ever, O well no subscription for a game I don't plan on playing!

 

[tlozoot]

No analyst, publishers really do not need to start charging for a multiplayer experience in the future. Their argument is that because we're spending more time on multiplayer, we're not spending that time buying new games. I think in many cases the reason I bought the game at retail price was because I could jump on the multiplayer - this is certainly true for Halo 3 and MW2

 

[DTWolfwood]

dammit i was hoping they implement this so i can watch them crash and burn!

I've cease to care about CoD ever since the mediocrity that was CoD6

 

[Low Key]

Call me crazy, but something tells me to be skeptical of Activision downplaying anything that might equate to more money.

Some analysts are saying that publishers will have to start charging for online play [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102117-Pachter-Publishers-Need-to-Charge-for-Online-Play] eventually...

No they shouldn't, at least not while a lot of DLC is overpriced. I paid $30 for all of the World at War map packs. There is no way in hell 12 maps are worth that much. Honestly though, I have no problem paying for them as long as we can keep multiplayer free. I also find it interesting that the fallout from the whole Infinity Ward debacle showed that 38 devs wanted $125 million, not including punitive damages. That's over $3 million each. Way to go guys, your game sold great, but there is no way $3 million should be awarded just because they did their job. It's not like they don't already make a decent salary.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

And yet all it's going to take is Bobby Kotick walking into his Money Bin and seeing that the cash level has dropped below the "Obscenely Wealthy" mark, and online subscriptions will be in place before the end of the week.

They probably issue sell to their own employees company neck braces for just such events of ideological whiplash.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Next week's headline:

Activision to charge for MW2 (or Black Ops) multiplayer

Kotick's reasoning:

Well, people seemed to like the way David Jaffe lied about not making Twisted Metal so he could reveal it later, so I figured that by doing this I'd become more popular and loved!

 

[jamesworkshop]

Come on people COD is a console franshise they have no ability to create a subscription service in that enviroment when Microsoft wouldn't like the idea unless they get a cut which would defeat the object of the subscription and otherwise undermines the Xbox live subscription that is supossed to be a single payment to access online content on the Live network.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Actually this is quite funny everybody is convinced that Activision was going to ruin Blizzard and then Activision starts wanting a subscription based service after joining with a company that has an undisputed place in the gaming industry as being able to continuiously re-sell their product using a subscription service.

 

[UnravThreads]

Kotick's reasoning:

Well, people seemed to like the way David Jaffe lied about not making Twisted Metal so he could reveal it later, so I figured that by doing this I'd become more popular and loved!

The sad thing is, that sounds plausible.

Kotick's missing one thing, though. Twisted Metal isn't shit.