Call of Duty Elite Yearly Subscription Price Set

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
Activision is pushing the envelope a bit with its Call of Duty Elite subscriptions. The company is counting on the hard core gamers to want more as far as service and content is concerned and willing to pay for that privilege. It’s a gamble that Activision seems willing to take. The ultimate success will of course rest with the gamers and their wallets.
 
I really think the problem with this sort of thing is not the people who are willing to pay more but the people who aren't.

It's one thing to pay $60 for a game and be on an even playing-field with everyone. It's a totally different thing to pay $60 and be at a huge disadvantage compared to anyone willing to throw more money at the game.

It makes it overall not particularly appealing to "normal" gamers like me that rarely download DLC and just want to play with their friends every once in a while. Being cannon fodder for all of the "real" players isn't fun.
 
Uh, why wouldn't you be on an even playing field? As far as I can tell, the subscription is just for the DLC (map packs and more modes) and some extra replay slots, and clan tournaments. Nothing about better killstreaks or more guns and perks or anything like that.
 
This is basically extortion.

You want these features? Extra slots? Pay for it.

I mean, paying for extra slots? Fuck off.
 
Kalabalana said:
This is basically extortion.

You want these features? Extra slots? Pay for it.

I mean, paying for extra slots? Fuck off.
Click to expand...

You want a GPS built into your car, auto-assist parallel parking, night vision, collision detection braking. Pay for it.

Don't want to pay for it, get the base model...

Damn bloody extortion!!!

Wait wut!?
 
Wow, I cannot believe everyone is so mad about this. If you can't afford it, then don't buy it. Simple as that. They are in business to make money, just like any other business. As long as the content is good, then it shouldn't be a concern.

Extortion... You gotta be kidding me if you think that is extortion.

How long have WoW subscribers been paying for their games. I think it's time to step up as gamers and just accept that this is the new business model for gaming and it's not going to go away because a few people don't want to pay for it. There are millions of gamers out there. I guarantee that 50-75% of them are willing to pay for this service.
 
How come people of lower intelligence ALWAYS compare something about computers/software to cars? I mean, this was old TEN YEARS AGO during the dot com bust. And people are still beating a completely dead horse, that's so dead that even the maggots are gone.....
 
Kalabalana said:
This is basically extortion.

You want these features? Extra slots? Pay for it.

I mean, paying for extra slots? Fuck off.
Click to expand...

How is this extortion? You want extra space for video replays, pay for it! Don't want to pay for it, then upload your clips to youtube and clear out the slot.

OMG dropbox charges for extra space too!

This isn't like BF3 where if you don't preorder you miss out on some in game gear.
 
I am glad some people are agreeing with me. This is strictly business and they are in it to make money. If they didn't make money, then we wouldn't have video games. Simple as that.
 
I cant believe people actually pay to play this shit.
 
The sheeple will have no problem shelling out for this, and the demise of our favorite hobby is in progress.
 
Activision is confusing FPS players with MMO players.

MMO players pay for Subs..FPS players pay for real amounts of add on content. Promises of content later down the time = Activision can go F themselves.
 
The paid Elite subscription is nothing more than Activision trying their damndest to get you to pay for their overpriced DLC. They probably had too many people like me buy a map pack, think it was garbage, and not buy any DLC since. Do they really think more more replay slots, which should be far more numerous considering the shitty time limit on them is as bad as a decade old cell phone, is going to convince me to pay money?

I'm not even close to being convinced to pay double to play multiplayer COD. But, it may be a deal for the suckers who shell out for overpriced DLC like clockwork.
 
WozniakMac said:
Wow, I cannot believe everyone is so mad about this. If you can't afford it, then don't buy it. Simple as that. They are in business to make money, just like any other business. As long as the content is good, then it shouldn't be a concern.

Extortion... You gotta be kidding me if you think that is extortion.

How long have WoW subscribers been paying for their games. I think it's time to step up as gamers and just accept that this is the new business model for gaming and it's not going to go away because a few people don't want to pay for it. There are millions of gamers out there. I guarantee that 50-75% of them are willing to pay for this service.
Click to expand...

WoW has a monthly subscription due to the need of server maintenance and hiring GMs to patrol the servers. These two don't even compare.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Fine, since apparently car analogies are too much over your head.

You want to pay the "expansion packs" you pay more...

gee that sounds like extortion to me!
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I get the impression that they could take all of the free part of Elite and may it for-pay, basically becoming the opposite of how Bungie just gives it all away for free to their customers, and you'd still be here talking about how there isn't a valid argument against it.

I think the point the guy was making was that Activision intentionally withheld features and tied them to prepaid map pack subscriptions and is passing it off as a favor to gamers. Hopefully the rest of their competition offers it for free, like Bungie, and resists the temptation to follow Koticks addition for money at the expense of their customers. Customer appreciation, if you will. Or is that a completely dead concept to business and customers nowadays?
 
Animal Mother said:
Too bad the analogy is spot on, and you are just too blinded by your emotions to realize it.
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The two subjects are not even close and can not be compared. If you can't see the difference between the manufacturing of a car and making a few maps then your head must be filled with water.
 
Valshistixol said:
The two subjects are not even close and can not be compared. If you can't see the difference between the manufacturing of a car and making a few maps then your head must be filled with water.
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It's not the maps. More like the extra replay slots and the withheld game modes. Though the maps are also prepaid, and don't exist yet. And when they do, can be duplicated infinitely at virtually zero cost.

As for the other stuff, Activision is trying to force the customers to overpay (and give Activision profits) for community development, as opposed to fronting the measly costs themselves to grow their game's community themselves. Aka, "having one's cake and eating it too". Aka, Kotick is a cock sucker.
 
wow there is people here defending this decision? wtf with all the oft lately on this site???
 
Extra slots is not some magical feature. It's the product of a programmer slightly modifying existing code. They want to charge you for it. What's next? Paying for an autosave feature? No quick loading unless you subscribe to some service?

The comparison to the car was ridiculous btw.
 
I gave up on Blizz+Activision. I think its more to blame on Activision though. I thank them for the Mechwarrior 3 soundtrack I still listen to on occasion but our time to go seperate paths has come and gone.

I got tired of Blizzard taking forever to release new content, even though they said that was the whole reason for only going up 5 levels because they were going to release content more frequently. Some 8 months after the release they finally released new content (well sorta since Ragnaros had been around for 5 years at this point).

Now I play Rift. And they release content about every 2-3 weeks. An ever changing world is nice when its ever changing.
 
Kalabalana said:
Extra slots is not some magical feature. It's the product of a programmer slightly modifying existing code. They want to charge you for it. What's next? Paying for an autosave feature? No quick loading unless you subscribe to some service?
Click to expand...

Herein is the rub...they will only do what the market will bear. I know it may come as a surprise to you, but almost all companies are not non-profit agencies. Their goal is to make a profit. I know, I was shocked to learn this tidbit too! Research it if you do not believe me, it is true!!!

WIth that in mind, companies will sell you things for more than they cost to make them (including the taxes they pay, employee costs, massive Obamacare costs, etc). This is how they make the profit I mentioned in the last paragraph.

So far, it is simple. To recap, the goal of most companies is to make money and they do this by selling things for more than it cost to produce these things. But then it gets tricky...how much profit can they make?

Well, the amount of profit usually depends on the line of business they are in. For example, Oil is a low profit margin industry - they just sell a butt-ton of it so they end up with a huge total profit even though the actual profit per barrel is very slim. But lets keep the discussion to video games, agreed?

In the vid game industry, the amount they can sell a product for is controlled by two main factors...how good the game is and much people are willing to pay max for a game regardless of how good it is. The company has to balance volume vs profit margin. In the oil example, they went low margin but high volume. In games, they can only expect to sell a max number of X games (based on the type of game and the platform). They know their costs and know how much money the market will pay max, so then they just try to make a high quality game. That is why you see most games out there for the exact same price.

Profits being the goal of most companies, they are always seeking ways to make more profit. Not a surprise. Having someone pay for a subscription is a way of getting recurring income. It is up to the market whether this will pan out as a good idea or not.

Personally, I think it will not. FPS shooter players tend to be less mature than most MMO players (just log into any MW:BO game to prove this point), so they are more apt to refuse to pay a subscription...it rankles their "against the man" mentality. Nothing wrong with that mentality, as it serves FPS players well in their games.

But to go to your cry of having to pay extra for autosave and quick load features, I think we both know the market will definately not bear these expenses. These things are already free and have been forever - they are considered part of the core of all games. There is no need to worry about it as it will not happen. If it does, the game's sales will drop considerably from all the bad reviews.
 
So if you want the extra content you pay for it. I don't see the problem since the app works fine without paying beyond the initial price. Same thing with Intels could upgrade card program. You pay more you unlock more potential. Its simple guys.
 
Acoustique said:
wow there is people here defending this decision? wtf with all the oft lately on this site???
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I think a lot of us have grown up and come to realize the pc gaming industry can keep providing content for free or little money. Pc gamers have been spoiled too long. You pay to play now.
 
nobody_here said:
I think a lot of us have grown up and come to realize the pc gaming industry can keep providing content for free or little money. Pc gamers have been spoiled too long. You pay to play now.
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Or a better way of putting it is, a lot of us have decided to be sheeple and weak willed and continue to buy the new shiny even though it's a turd because we like new shinies, even if they reek of turd stink, because it's the new shiny!
 
Good thing I haven't played their games since COD2.

I think constantly trying to charge people for things other than the game itself is a bad idea. That said I don't care because I only play valve games.

I'm not really thrilled about the direction they've taken with TF2, but can forgive it because they've always taken care of their customers and aren't trying to constantly charge us for things they should be doing anyway.
 
nobody_here said:
I think a lot of us have grown up and come to realize the pc gaming industry can keep providing content for free or little money. Pc gamers have been spoiled too long. You pay to play now.
Click to expand...

Modern Warfare 2:
As of January 18, 2010, it had taken over $1 billion in sales. The map packs cost $7.49 each, On Steam, even for this old ass game.
Development cost was between $40-50 million, marketing and launch budget, $200 million.
That is a shit ton of profit.
Also I don't know how much you make for a day's work, But $60 is a lot of money for me to shell out for one game.
Also i don't think you understand, This subscription thing is not the big deal here, I'm sure most people could care less about a couple replay slots etc. The problem comes later when our hobby dies because we can't afford to buy all the other crap they will eventually strip out of games.
 
This is one reason why lately most of my gaming time is devoted to indie games like Minecraft or Terraria.
 
nobody_here said:
I think a lot of us have grown up and come to realize the pc gaming industry can keep providing content for free or little money. Pc gamers have been spoiled too long. You pay to play now.
Click to expand...

Actually, no I don't pay to play. COD4 and WaW run almost the exact same engine as the new COD games, in fact the legacy of the engine goes all the way back to 1999. It's old tech.

I get new community content in COD4 and WaW on the TR servers I play, as we switch between thousands of community made maps and mods that are far better than the shit being sold as full games.
 
cybrsage said:
But to go to your cry of having to pay extra for autosave and quick load features, I think we both know the market will definately not bear these expenses. These things are already free and have been forever - they are considered part of the core of all games. There is no need to worry about it as it will not happen. If it does, the game's sales will drop considerably from all the bad reviews.
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They took things like modding and map making out of the hands of the gamers who handed it out for free (and were forever till activision and others seen too much potential to get unintelligent gamers to pay for it. I can see them try to make you pay for things like autosave in the future. There will always be sheep that will pay and defend them.) Those gamers did it just to make the game better. The gaming companies do a half assed job themselves so they can profit by saying it takes money to make them. They could give us our own servers and mod tools back.
 
They are just trying to rake in the profits cause it works so well with WoW. If Blizzard can get away with it with an old ass game like WoW (by the way that game is over priced too seeing how old it is) then this too will work, Just watch and see.
Hell MS rakes in a shit ton of money getting people to pay $60 a year to play online with and XBox.
 
Acoustique said:
wow there is people here defending this decision? wtf with all the oft lately on this site???
Click to expand...


Activision aren't dumb. They may have studied the market closely and they know their die hard fans will easily accept and even defend this move just because its COD.

The biggest problem here will always be the die hard fans who keep throwing money at a franchise they love, overlooking any flaw in it. The game company will always be pushing to grab more cash, but ultimately its the consumers who decide how far they can go.

If the consumers keep accepting the new limit and waste their money on all these craps, then it will only encourage the companies to continue finding more ways to charge for the same single game.

If no one buy this service, you can bet Activision will quickly drop it in the next COD. Sadly, that doesn't look like its going to happen.
 
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