KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Console games are expensive, with leading titles often selling for £40-£45 in the UK. The latest news to reach us today is that the publisher behind Call Of Duty will be wanting to charge a monthly fee for online gaming services.
Activision Blizzard will be under fire for their plans to launch an online service called ‘Call Of Duty Elite' which will work with Modern Warfare 3. Industry executives are calling this move ‘a first' because Activision plan to charge a monthly subscription fee for the service which will provide extra content that isn't offered on game discs sold in stores, including new downloadable map packs that gives players new ‘Call Of Duty' levels to play.
Activision executives have not yet given costs and charges for the service but it is expected that the fees will be less than £5 a month. Portions of the service will be free, including features inspired by Facebook.
Other features of this service will give player tools, much like stock analysis software, to analysis performance statistics. Details such as kill ratios, weapons used etc will be listed.
Activision will be seen as wanting to milk more money from consumers, for one of the biggest selling game franchises of all time. Charging a subscription fee is more common place for MMORPG titles, but this is a first for a FPS. World Of Warcraft has over 11 million subscribers who pay around £10 a month for the services.
Fees for the new Call Of Duty Elite subscriptions on the Xbox 360 are said to be added to the Xbox Live general fees which is sure to be very unpopular. If you don't subscribe, there will still be online support but it will be likely limited in content and options.
The previous title Black Ops was one of the best selling games in recent years, with retail sales over $1 billion during the first six weeks on sale. If they can get more money from subscription fees they could indeed break this record with the upcoming game release, due to arrive in stores on November 8th.
KitGuru says: Will this be seen as a negative move by the publishers? We think so.
Wow when are these people ever happy with revenue they generate? if they sell 1 billion copies, thats 40 billion made approximately, take away 10 billion for costs, etc.
They cant throw in free networking options? greed
“The previous title Black Ops was one of the best selling games in recent years, with retail sales over $1 billion during the first six weeks on sale.”
Not to mention the what was it, 6.5 Million Pirated Copy Downloads in the first 24 hours?
Honestly though, the Activision Heads have been milking as much as possible from WoW ever since the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion was released. Quality started decreasing, making room for Quantity and thus in turn, Greed. They started re-using Models, Recycling Raids, creating an Online Pet/Mount Store, etc. etc. etc. Their CEO actually wanted to take Cutscenes from World of Warcraft and turn them into a 2 hour movie which they could sell, instead of implementing them into the game (free).
Not sure how this affects Modern Warfare 3, but so far its not looking good, and since the Call of Duty Elite thing is optional, they better have some really good bonuses for Subscribers, otherwise, tough luck.