Next 'Call of Duty' To Charge Monthly Fee

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Please raise your hand if you think this idea is going to work. Anyone? Anyone at all? I didn't think so.

The Wall Street Journal reports publisher Activision Blizzard will likely charge less than $8 a month for stuff such as downloadable map packs and statistical analysis. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick says the subscription fee is a necessity because the customer service infrastructure for the service requires an "enormous investment."
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of course we all dont think it will work. But, it will.
sad but true.
 
I certainly won't be paying it but if WoW can work I'm not sure why this wouldn't.
 
Title is really misleading... I hate CoD as much as the next person but they've been very clear that they won't be charging a monthly fee for the online multiplayer, you'll still be getting what you've gotten before, this is just for extra services like the article says, maps and extra statistics... doubt it will be worth it though.
 
What is next, 25 man raids vs OPFOR and purchasable in game pets? $8.00 month for some new maps and stats is just a money grab, plain and simple!
 
They and by they I mean Kotick clearly do not understand the FPS market. This is going to bomb and bomb hard.
 
If they update the game fairly often and give the consumer something "worth" paying for then a lot of people might get it. A persistent ever changing and continually updating FPS with name recognition might be able to pull this off.

I won't buy into to it. But I know a lot of FPS fans that might get into this sort of MMO meets FPS sort of thing.
 
Two words: "Fuck you"

statistical analysis? I don't know if it would be similar to the stats system they already have setup for black ops, but who the hell cares? I looked at the stats system maybe twice in my life? On top of that, why would they charge money for a system that's existed and been in use for years? Keep in mind they obviously reuse the statistics code from previous games.

We all know what happens when a company nickle and dimes you to death. AT&T did it to me so I ditched their ass, airlines do it - so I don't fly.
 
Of course it will work. The masses that consume this stuff on a yearly basis already pay $15 for 4 maps. Why wouldn't they pay a monthly fee to get more content on a regular basis? The majority of us hardcore PC users will laugh but the bro-shooter faithful will find value here.

I'll stick with my free Portal 2 updates, thank you.
 
I hope this succeeds so I can lick the tears of people like the guy above saying "Fuck you!".
 
Here's a thought: Why not let folks run their OWN servers so you don't have to worry about the "enormous investment" in infrastructure to do it yourselves?
 
seriously, who didn't see this coming?

what i don't get is... if they are offering maps and such with it.. what's the point of map packs then?
 
This will work... cause really they don't care about how long the game lasts... They only care how many copies sell that first quarter.

If anything this will force the devs to actually support these games longer.

I am sure they have done the math and said... well if everyone quits playing after 3mo, we made our money and will ramp up the next release.

They are just cashing in on what money they can get... someone will pay $15 per mo for 3 months until they quit...
 
Change is the last thing the franchise needs, it's going up against BF3.

Bad time to make the transition Kotick, you sexual offending pervert.
 
It will work cause theres a lot of Call of Duty fans. As a fps it won't last long because of this. Gotta keep the content fresh and new, and I don't think they will.
 
It depends. I know a lot of people are very competitive when it comes to video games, and like to show it. I'm guessing those people would be willing to fork over the extra money to play competitively in a sort of league with extra maps/stats. Kind of like what WoW did with their tournament competitions (even though WoW is subscription based and the fee to enter was a lump sum).

That would be kind of neat if the player base was willing to support it, and that way the more casual or less-hardcore people could buy the game and play it without having nor wanting to fork over the extra money.

Although it wouldn't surprise me to see something less. Unfortunately games companies have taken the liking to quantity over quality and micro-transactions as "the wave of the future." And the only real way people can voice their opinions is with their wallets, or for those who choose to, their torrent clients. :D
 
I keep hearing the mutterings of "you get what you always have.. this is for extra"... but i thought extra maps were once a given? And i recal player statistics were once a big desire in FPS's (sadly... gone the way of the true "next generation" developer dodo bird) and should be in these games right off the cuff let a lone in the 13th "sequel". And that also stands true for clan/tournament style features!

Big fkn woop you prks! All i ask for is CoD4 awesomeness with enhanced hit detection... enhanced network code... good server selection (AND creation) options.. and i'll give you a free pass to slap a new coat of paint onto it! As long as you actually do continually release updates like you say you're going to but 6 months in after the first over priced map "pack" we never hear another peep!
 
well there be some retired hard core gamer who'll pay for it,
there will be some kid who'll pay their allowance to it
there will be some rich kid who can pay for it
there will be other's who will HAVE to pay for it cause the game is just darn toooo good

and there are us here at [H] who hope it doesn't work and they remove it so we can finally play it, but who are we kidding, you know we gonna do it anyway.
 
Lorddeth said:
Here's a thought: Why not let folks run their OWN servers so you don't have to worry about the "enormous investment" in infrastructure to do it yourselves?
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The sad thing is, since the vast majority of the players are from consoles... they are running there own servers. Each round the game picks the person with the best bandwidth and makes them host... which is why there are so many games that suddenly become laggy as fuck then "Game paused, migrating host" or shoved back to lobby cuz "host has disconnected"
 
You need to change the title of this thread, it's misleading based off of the info available ATM.

Right now they've only announced extra features not related to gameplay that will have a monthly fee if you want it, the core game is, as we know ATM, still free.

That said, I still think this is the beginning of the end.
 
Another nail in the coffin. The other nail is BF3 :D

Also, you never saw older games that had a TON of content charge for it. Quake 3, UT2003/2004 etc..
 
*** Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick says the subscription fee is a necessity because the customer service infrastructure for the service requires an "enormous investment." ***

Or you could just give the people what they really want and let them make their own servers. - of course that would relinquish full control from Activision. So I'm sure that idea
was thrown out the window.
 
LordCalin said:
The sad thing is, since the vast majority of the players are from consoles... they are running there own servers. Each round the game picks the person with the best bandwidth and makes them host... which is why there are so many games that suddenly become laggy as fuck then "Game paused, migrating host" or shoved back to lobby cuz "host has disconnected"
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And on top of that, Microsoft is obligated to provide all the matchmaking servers as part of the $60 you pay them yearly for running the matchmaking servers. I think EA has even opted out of that though because EA has done the math and figured out they make even MORE profit off ads and customer data than it costs to run their own matchmaking servers.

Personally, I don't play Call of Duty now, even without a monthly subscription fee, and I CERTAINLY won't be once they go to a subscription model.
 
"subscription fee is a necessity because the customer service infrastructure for the service requires an "enormous investment."

THEN DONT DO THAT PART! No one is going to want to pay $8 a month for some crap anyway. You've already milked us for the same game 100x now, now you are going to tell us the same game again AND charge us a monthly fee?! WTF! Im definitely not buying this one, Im going to try the Battlefield line this time...
 
BF3 will take the cake hands down.... it was nice playing you MW# games.... welcome back DICE!!!!
 
collegeboy69us said:
Two words: "Fuck you"

statistical analysis? I don't know if it would be similar to the stats system they already have setup for black ops, but who the hell cares? I looked at the stats system maybe twice in my life? On top of that, why would they charge money for a system that's existed and been in use for years? Keep in mind they obviously reuse the statistics code from previous games.

We all know what happens when a company nickle and dimes you to death. AT&T did it to me so I ditched their ass, airlines do it - so I don't fly.
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+1

I will NEVER pay for a game then pay a monthly dues.

F U Blizzard/Activision.
 
CoD is Battlefield 2 for noobs. I wouldn't even play it with a free copy of the game. I actually had a copy of the original MW I got with a video card purchase. Never installed it. When I watched my little brother play multiplayer, my suspicions were confirmed. It's like the kiddie pool...or the kids table at Christmas.
 
BF3 is exactly what I need here. Call of Duty is fun but I passed on Black Ops and World at War. We shall see if Modern Warfare 3 is good. I think it will be, I liked the last two.
 
I like how Unreal handles their tournament games. You bought the game. With the game you got quite a few maps (although less in the most recent release), plenty of gameplay modes, a game editor (so users could create their own content), free patches, the ability to create custom servers, and even free map packs released from the publisher. With the editor, players had an even bigger choice of maps and mods due to the mod community. However, with Unreal, they license the game engine out to other developers, that is probably where they make their real money.
 
I'll be too busy playing Battlefield 3. This series and this especially this concept can go rot.
 
What a joke. They want $60 for a mod and then $8/month for nothing but stat tracking and maps? This pile of steaming shit probably doesn't even use dedicated servers. There is no reason to purchase this game let alone the premium monthly service.
 
:)
Alphonze said:
Title is really misleading... I hate CoD as much as the next person but they've been very clear that they won't be charging a monthly fee for the online multiplayer, you'll still be getting what you've gotten before, this is just for extra services like the article says, maps and extra statistics... doubt it will be worth it though.
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Came here to post the same thing. Honestly though the game looks like garbage compared to BF3so its a non-issue for me...
 
Json23 said:
If they update the game fairly often and give the consumer something "worth" paying for then a lot of people might get it. A persistent ever changing and continually updating FPS with name recognition might be able to pull this off.

Team Fortress 2 is only one that comes to mind. It's four years old and hasn't gotten stale and it's still fun to play. If TF3 were announced as pay-to-play tomorrow- I'd sign up. (and I think that's always been Valve's ultimate goal with TF2)

I don't think EA understands SaaS (software as a service) model for online FPS games. Only the wanna-be-l337 will pay for maps and stats. It's simply not enough content to justify the monthly charge.
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Sure it starts with just extras like stats and maps, but if people actually pay for it they will charge just to play online. Wait and see.

Since iv quit wow im determined not to give activision anymore of my money.
 
Cant wait for the hacked private servers to out number actual servers.
 
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