Why COD Subscription Fee Is Inevitable

X360 Magazine's Steve Burns explains the inevitability of subscription fees for the Call Of Duty Franchise...

[Yi-Long]

... me never ever picking up a Call of Duty game if this goes through.

[jimmins]

It's me sincerest hope that the general public ensure its failure.

It's time for the console wars to be put to bed for a while. Gamers need to unite against this ridiculous proposal.

[Cenobia]

I think we should all literally grab pitchforks and torches, march to Activision headquarters, and burn that bitch to the ground.

We could toast Kotick marshmallows over the blazing inferno.

[StbI990]

Jajajaja peace for now huh? whatever, since I don't and haven't give one sht about COD...FFxIII > Cod anyday, good luck with that though.

[hennessey86]

this will ruin gaming and the fees will get bigger and bigger. But you can garuntee there are idiots who will pay

[sikbeta]

It's a "model" Acti-Blizzard CEO knows pretty well, it's inevitable cos COD games sell sh*tloads, it's the franchise that can be milked to death, sure this subscription fee, if it happens soon, it'll not be as promoted as the game itself = fine print, so when loads of dudes want to play multiplayer on-line, they realize about the need to pay a fee in order to access this mode...

[Montrealien]

@Yi-Long

I got a question for you, if you do play Call of Duty 2 online, do you buy map packs?

[Noctis Aftermath]

I think these articles that have started to come out about this have been payed for by activision.

/paranoia off

Anyway, go ahead acti, make COD subscription based and watch everyone flock to Medal of Honor.

[Yi-Long]

... and I'll say it again:

IF you truly LOVE gaming, you shouldn't spend a single dime on anything from Activision!

Bobby and Activision are the cancer of the videogameindustry!

[I_find_it_funny]

true that

[jdktech2010]

Well I only own one activision game and that's MW2 (don't count Blizzard's...you're not getting me to boycott those games..no chance). I won't purchase from them again but I already purchased MW2 before the company tried all this "creative" stuff so I might as well play it but I don't like where they're trying to take things. Thankfully, Blizzard has some semblance of control over their own company unlike IW and all or it would be a lost cause all together.

And if it all goes south, there's always Valve to open you with welcome and free arms

[jakethesnake]

@jdktech2010
I'm with you as long as we separate Blizzard from Activision. There may - may - come a day when Blizzard starts acting like Acti, but until that happens I will continue to support Blizzard while giving the rest of Acti the cold shoulder (and cold-wallet). I'm putting Activision games in the same category I put Ubisoft games - not even worth pirating.

I am hoping that this fails and that it is the kick in the pants that Activision needs. A lot like Spore's failure was the kick in the pants that EA needed (although I think that they might need another preemptive kick in the pants...)

[Pennywise]

I hope they do start charging for this series. I think the COD series needs to die. It was cool when it wasn't released every year like a sports game, but now they need to lay it to rest. One good way is to charge to play it.

[radzy]

maybe Activision dont have a choice.
easily they get 1 million people on saturday and sunday playing modern warfare 2.
someone has to pay for the servers , and that is alot of servers week in week out.
i think this will be exclusive to call.of.duty series , soo many people play online, other games (even halo) cant compete.

i hate what activision are doing , but i also sort of understand it.

[Pennywise]

I understand that much, but that is the price you pay for being the most popular shooter. What Activision is going to do is kill the series. There has never once been a FPS game that has had a monthly fee... I just don't see it going over well.

With a whole slew of shooters that play for free, I just don't see people being eager to pay Activision for a subscription.

And please, don't tell me that you are compassionate to their situation... They sold so many copies of CODMW, COD:WOW, and CODMW2 which are basically the same game... They can afford the servers.

[zagibu]

@radzy: What servers? I thought it was peer-to-peer networking?

[Greywulf]

Didn't buy MW2... or anything else.

I cant understand people that buy it, only to complain. Its so clearly milking people, and when there is a subscription, everyone complaining will gladly pay the fee too, since for the most ...

cod gamers are morons.

Its *just* a twitch shooter with no redeeming value outside of having friends that play it.

There is no reason another studio couldn't release a FPS that is a better-quality-game with *gasp*

quality control.

[inception123]

don't even try and compare this to dlc because it is far from that. if you want to describe what this is like think of it like buying half the game for full price and pay extra for the other half. it is like how capcom sold the multiplayer in rs5 as dlc even though it was on the disc.

[Montrealien]

Well, think about it this way then. CoD could go free to play. Yiu get basic map pack and online play with the new disc. And, if you pay a monthly fee, you get the maps.

You guys had no idea what I meant, I ask a question, all I wanted was an answer. Most kids have put down more cash on Call of Duty map packs then I have on WoW in the last 2 years. Think about that for a sec.

[Yi-Long]

I never buy ANY DLC for any game, unless it's really REALLY worth it (which up till now, has been never)

GTA4 got it right, with the episodes stuff, but I bought that on the stand-alone disc.

For other games, I usually just wait for a GOTY edition to come out which will have all the DLC on the disc (FallOut3 GOTY, Fable 2 GOTY, Gears of War GOTY, etc etc etc)

Whenever a developer is already boasting they'll be DLC-milking their product, I just decide I can wait 6-12 months before I pick up the game for 20 bucks orso. I'm pretty patient that way. I still have more than enough games on my pile that I haven't even played yet, so it's no problem for me.

TBH, the ONLY DLC that I would definately buy, would be new maps for Battlefield 1943, cause I've been playing that game since the first day it came out.

[Montrealien]

fair enough.

[r1sh12]

i dare them to do it, then they will have the biggest fail since MW2...hahaha
up yours acitivision

[evilmonkey501]

I cant believe this! Kill, disband and destroy the creative forces behind your most popularly played video game franchise and then decide to force rehash crap from "other devs" to fill in the gaps of said destroyed unit and then charge MONTHLY to play it, after I initially buy this Rehashed crap video game for 60 DOLLARS! WHAT A DEAL Activision! Where should I send my paychecks? Bobby's office?

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Yi-Long that is one hell of an Agree to disagree ratio. I wonder who that lone disagree is and why!?

[Yi-Long]

... It's probably Bobby ;)

[Spenok]

Same will Millions of other as well. I can maybe see this working if, say, they released the game at $30-40 at launch, and charged $2-5 per month to play. That way you could either NOT play online, or play for as little as 4 months and still only pay $60.

The ONLY other way i can see this working is if they made it an MMO such as WoW or FFXI/XIV. They would have to continuously add stuff to the game, new maps, new weapons, new gear, new accessories, abilities and so on. At no additional cost. DLC would have to be out of the question.

[Scary69]

With this suppose fee are they also including better servers or the crappy ones they have now?

[iamnsuperman]

but if COD decides to make subscriptions then other competitive games like BFBC or Medal of Honour will not and then people will buy those games.

[RedDead]

Good for the industry, bad for activision :P

[Pacman321]

The ridiculous thing is that, if they do this subscription fee, a lot of retards will go on an pay the fee.
I just hope this doesn't catch on and other developers start to charge for online gaming too.

[pippoppow]

XBL is charging extra to play multiplayer games for no reason. Now Pubs are looking for ways to get more money from gamers as well.

EA with $10 used game multiplayer fee
Activision thinking about subs.

More ideas and put into place policies will come. The thing is will it be supported by gamers. Console gamers have shown to hardly have a backbone so far.

[Roper316]

I actually don't have a problem with the fee for people who buy their game used. I want the devs to make money to fund new games and used games prevent the devs from making that money.

The only reason I don't have a XBL gold account is because of the pay to play that it represents. If the game play on XBL was free I would pay for gold( just like I signed up for PSN+ ) to help support the free game play and then I would most likely split the multiplat games between my PS3 & 360. But as of now I hardly ever buy 360 games. I just preordered like 18 games from Amazon and not 1 was for my 360 because I can only play half the game without paying MS a fee to be able to play the rest.

[pippoppow]

Devs/Pubs feel a little too entitled. Does that mean anything we buy used the manufacturer or creators should get a piece as well? What about a used car. Should GM/BMW etc get a cut of used sales? I do not think so.

What's funny is that many gamers sell used games to buy the latest and greatest. They'll sell a game to keep buying a new game at full price. Without used games small video game chains will most likely close and fewer games will be bought at $60. Remember that many of the younger under 19 gamers do not work and some just have financial problems.

Not worried about the game industry making money. I believe they made more money than the movie industry in recent years or close to it. They just need to come out with quality games worth buying and supporting. Some good quality DLC not meant for a greedy money grab will ensure continued support and profits.

[orange-skittle]

XBL doesn't charge money to play multiplayer games you idiot, they charge for a service they provide. Activision is charging to play "A GAME." The charge for giving you free trials on all arcade games, facebook, twitter, netflix integrated on the dashboard, inside xbox, games on demand, exclusive demos, and avatar games. That's why PSN Plus is charging you for the same thing. You cant dine on their dime forever. That stuff costs money. Don't compare XBL to PSN unless you get all that stuff which you don't. Not one of those things are on PSN. If you want to talk about arcade games...XBL has over 1000 games compared to PSN's 200 and you can't try them before u mk a purchase.

No one is going to pay for this. They won't even have 250 subscribers. Not when you have 20 other options out there for free. BFBC2 is still a better option IMO.

[webeblazing]

and this is why it will happen ^

[Colonel-Killzone]

I wanna just see how much people will pay for this lmao.

[marioPSUC]

I won't be surprised if a ton of people actually pay for this, seeing how many people bought the over priced map packs just gives a hint as to how many would pay for this

[crematory]

i know some people east,sleep.work COD
heck one of my friend list he only games he own cod4,mw2
its a disease lmao

[webeblazing]

even if they charge 2 dollars a yr thats a sh!tload a year dat why i dont even get why the subscriptions thats going on today are so high they can make more money by make it dirt cheap even tho it shouldnt happen, well some of them mmo makes sense

[Alos88]

It will get far fewer subscribers than Kotick expects, and be a commercial failure overall.
Team Fortress 2 offers constant updates and has a far greater level of connection with it's fanbase, to the point where user submissions occasionally become actual weapons in the game- all free. What will CODMMO offer? A few new weapons and maps a month? Please.

[playnation]

im with you xbox fanboy , they need to hear what we want, this whole pay4online idea it´s just ridiculous and their doom.

[ingiomar]

lol i see medal of honor selling better then cod if this goes trough

[orange-skittle]

Because if you did, you would have realized the Medal of Honor is a horrible game. The game will be a flop. The game is a ripoff of COD and BF. Notice I didn't say Bad Company or Bad Company 2. There's no destruction and the grenades are terrible. Ask Colonel Killzone.

The graphics are not that great and the soldiers die in awkward positions making them look retarded. I wiped it clean from HDD because I felt it was contaminating my PS3

[RyuDrinksTheDew]

me not buying activision games is inevitable. sorry bungie, you fucked up.

[jdktech2010]

Crap, forgot about them....Well, I wont buy acitvision games until Bungie's next release after Halo: Reach comes out....Sorry, some developers quality surpass the crapiness of acti

[spunnups]

Bungie only made a deal for Activision to take Publishing Rights, that's its. Bungie seems to have control over everything else.

[RyuDrinksTheDew]

they still took their dirty money. :(

[marioPSUC]

It does not need sub fees.
It offers really nothing any other FPS doesn't have. It sells a shit ton cause its very accessible to many people and is quite fun to play (well CoD4 was).
Subscription fees are gonna turn away a ton of the more casual players.
But I have a feeling tons of people will end up paying for this, just like tons bought the rip off that were the map packs

[byeGollum]

the map packs were rip offs & people bought them, makes me 'lol'

[dizzleK]

in all fairness though, maps are an occasional thing. but i think the loyalty of the fanbase would be tested when playing it requires a monthly bill. personally i've never liked a game so much that i'd keep paying to play it.

[webeblazing]

yea maps are different devs never use to give free maps for the fans that support their game right dizz right dizz

[AssassinHD]

I have said it before and I will say it again. The day they implement a subscription fee for the online portion is the day I no longer buy CoD games. This is not about any anti-Activision movement or CoD boycott. It is about me not paying subscription fees for online gaming. There are plenty of other games to play.

[byeGollum]

Whatever happened to new IPs, I understand they are making more cause it's selling crazy but enough is enough. Soon we'll get Call of Duty XIII ^^)

[BeaArthur]

Why me no longer buying CoD games is inevitable.

[cellypower]

If this succeeds other company's will follow, and it will suck.

Games went from 50 to 60 dollars, then now there going to add a online fee for peer-to-peer online. Activision you money hungry bastards!!

[AssassinHD]

If other companies follow I will not buy those games either.

[wiggles]

So that means that because I have to pay to play multiplayer the game should only be like $30 right??

If they do this you know things will only get uglier...Activision and EA sports thinks that consumers buying used games was bad...

I can only imagine what the consumers come up with next that will make the big companies beg that only used game sales was the worst of their problems..

[Ares84PS3]

People aren't idiots.

At least I hope that no one will pay to play COD online.

I sure won't.

Suck my balls Activison!

[lefty burns]

Won't ever pay a sub fee for a single game. Too many choices.

[jagstatboy]

I will never ever pay a monthly fee. Ever.

[SuperStrokey1123]

If the game is free then they can charge a subscription fee for it assuming they also add dedicated servers and regular updates and free map packs... oh wait they wont.

[Baka-akaB]

"WoW is priced to move, razor/razor blade style, at a sub-ten pound price point, and the gross profit is then made longitudinally rather than the standard 'opening weekend' style launch that most big games indulge in. "

What the hell is he even talking about ? Wow and each expansion , precisely made those big opening juggernaut sales .

Where they were smart is mostly being able to retain the same afflux of players all the time , partially thanks to the expansions .

Anywy i dont mind subs , when it bring a plus a service , and an actual reason for it .
After all we havent see yet any kind of subs free mmo of wow's quality . At most we had guild wars , but even if excellent and called a mmo , it was more similar in structure to a diablo and/or frantic fps multiplayer , than the usual Faction vs faction and big raids .

Now turning a game that obviously works fine without the subs into a mmo , like cod ? Then i happily insult you

[BuIIetproofish_]

They will easily get 1 million subscribers. Happy to already not play CoD.

[Gr81]

What the consumer reaction to this will be...

[Raider69]

It coud be my impression but from the end of the article it seems Steve Burns is defending Activision,Shareholders and Kotick!If thats the case FuC% you Steve,you shoud be bashing Activision and Kotick,and not defending theres point of view!The only way this BS goes down the drain is having the press and media on the same side of gamers,and not supporting moves to screw gamers insted!

[inception123]

the media doesn't matter really it is the gamers who have to stop this. if we don't buy their games or at least don't play online they won't do this. i know ps3 owners won't support this because we don't believe in pay2play neither do pc gamers. wii gamers don't really seem to care for online but the limited online games they have are free and i doubt they will want that to change. the only people i can see ruining things for everyone are 360 owners since they have shown they will support this with LIVE. the fact that LIVE isn't free now despit everyone else playing for free shows that they make so much from 360 owners that it doesn't matter what others do and if 360 owners go and buy mw3 like they did with mw2 and it has a subscription then everyone of activision's games will and more devs will follow.

[Knightofelemia]

This is just stupid its a way to wreck the gaming industry other developers will fallow suit with this in the near future. Coming home from work and shooting people on free for all was a great stress reliever but with a monthly fee then whats the point means I gotta spend time with the family more often now. I feel sorry for those who have the game on the Xbox paying a yearly fee of 50 bucks and if Activision does this an added fee on top of your yearly fee. I have an Xbox but I won't pay an additional fee to play a game online. Developers are going to nickle and dime the consumer to death where people just will stop with video games period. Wich in terms hurts Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo if you adopt a monthly subscription fee on a game people will be doing something else with their time. Now if CODMW2 had a monthly fee would people bitch about it and keep in mind I have also played the game. There are some people out there that are addicted to the game some people like it and some people who play it for an hour or two. Then there are those who bitch about the game and still turn around and play it. I would not pay a monthly fee for CODMW2. The online sucked with the game with people using glitches, servers crashing and that wrecks my online fun and makes me wonder why I would pay a monthly fee for this. And when they try to fix the glitch another appeares thats what drove me away from the game. And the fact Activision treated one of their inhouse studios that braught in the cash like they were garbage if it was not for Infinity Ward Call of Duty would not be as popular as it is now they changed the game. Treyarch is great but when I saw a Call of Duty game i thought meh just another title but when I saw COD 4 it got me into Call of Duty. A monthly fee will turn people away Activision does not see that they see that people will pay for it because it is a cash cow like World of Warcraft people pay to play that. And if they do decide to do a monthly fee I see people going back to Halo, Killzone, Medal of Honor. The object is to make the consumer happy not turn the over to other studios that have other shooters to play.

[BuIIetproofish_]

I'll just play Halo: Reach, Fable 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Little Big Planet 2, Grand Turismo 5 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood this year instead.

[N4BmpS]

Without reading the article, why it's inevitable; Millions play CoD, Activision wants more from that. It's the "what have you done for me lately?" Story. Yeah, you bought and supported their game at launch, bought the DLC and basically promote it when you say "I'm playing CoD: Whatever title online," but they'll want more from that success.

Oh yeah and Kotick has no respect for you/us or the industry.

[EliteAssassin81]

Tired of developers trying to rip me off by cutting content and selling it as DLC. Charging $60 for a broken game that needs a several patches to fix. And now trying to charge monthly rates to play something I already bought. If you don't want to maintain the online part for free than just make it a awesome single player game. Developers wouldn't be shit without us gamers and the time has come for them to learn that. If everyone would just not buy it, they wouldn't have a choice but to go back to being free.

[N4BmpS]

I understand what you're trying to say but, it's not the devs doing the charging, its the Publisher/distributor. But Also understand that there's a line between ripping someone off and and trying to make a game stay relevant, obviously this isn't what Activision is trying to do. They are ripping people off if they do charge. But that's Activision not IW.

[loslonelyman]

Now I have one. 80% of my friends play this game,we chat after/before and are pretty close. So now i will say buy Kz3,Socom or MAG or were not playing together. I will not pay a subscription to play freaking Call of Poopy! Bad enough i have to buy the map packs to b/s with my friends for an hour or two a night GRRRRRRR

[AllroundGamer]

hopefully only the kiddies will pay monthly fees for COD (or more their parrents), so they can shout at each other online through headset and no adult gamer will stand in their way, cause an adult gamer isn't so dumb to pay for it :p aaand the teenie noob wars can finally begin! :)

[TwistedMetal]

You will be deleted off my friends list immediately and everyone else should do the same. You got to be the biggest idiot in the world if you pay for that crap.

[dkgshiz]

That would be the day that I would ever pay a monthly fee for a fuking First person shooter! I dont pay for monthly fees with my video games. If a game has a monthly fee each month I dont buy it at all. Screw off Activision. I would laugh if they actually start to do this.

[dkgshiz]

Or anything Activision/Blizzard related. They all need to be put in their place.

[Dazel]

Every gamer is welcome to post their thoughts. Come on, stand up and be counted!!!

http://www.facebook.com/?sk...

[Dazel]

Come on guys!

[ASSASSYN 36o]

I will be busy playing so many other games to care what COD is doing.

[IHateYouFanboys]

ive posted this picture numerous times, which basically confirms that theyve had plans to charge subscriptions for a while as i took this photo 6+ months ago, yet noone has seemed to acknowledge it:

http://i215.photobucket.com...

[csreynolds]

'cause it's bull. How come everyone else on Xbox can play subscription free?

[IHateYouFanboys]

*sigh*

youre missing the entire point of the picture lol.

im not saying that i have to pay to play it online, because i dont. i got to that marketplace screen by some error in the system i pressed the guide button to try and close the guide, then pressed some random buttons cause it looked like it had frozen, then when it 'unfroze' i got that screen. as you can see, theres no option there to buy a membership, and it doesnt even have a price, so how you took that as me saying 'you have to pay to play MW2' is far beyond me. but the Membership IS there, its not a photoshop or conspiracy.

see what im saying? im merely pointing out that the actual Modern Warfare 2 Membership has been in the Marketplace system for at least 6 months, so its basically just a matter of WHEN they start using it.

[Spartan DL]

If this goes threw, all I have to say is good luck. MW2, their prized shooter, has already lost a large amount of its players and the game is not even a year old. This will help even more :)

[csreynolds]

If the money-grabbing f**ks at Activision introduce subscriptions for CoD they can kiss goodbye to my money.

[demonrock]

Wow, and they say piracy is what's ruining the gaming industry. I'd say its the greed from these stupid company's trying to pump more money out of us. My COD days end here. Not investing any more money into any game that descides to go subscription based and those that do are also at fault for why its gotten this far to begin with. Any game you buy that you need to keep paying for over and over each month is bullshit and will not see my money and I hope people follow suit as well because we make the industry what it is. They might make the games, but we, pay for them and play them and should only have to invest in it one time around.

[LiquifiedArt]

Wasn't planning on buying another shooter until Resistance 3 then Killzone 3.

So no worries for me and i'll never pay a subscription for a cod game.

[Scary69]

Well According to FourZeroTwo he stated " Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they." Check his twitter http://twitter.com/fourzero...