Activision Considering Imposing Fees for Online Service
If Activision Blizzard hasn’t angered you enough recently, their CFO, Thomas Tippl, in a recent conference, gave some nerve-wrecking words about how Activision may be handling their online games. Not to mention, this news is based on an already upsetting business model.
According to Tippl, gamers can expect in the future, to pay for online services for Activision games. This business model, Tippl says, is based on the model Blizzard uses for their highly successful World of Warcraft series.
“It’s definitely an aspiration that we see potential in, particularly as we look at different business models to monetize the online gameplay.“There’s good knowledge exchange happening between the Blizzard folks and our online guys.
“We have great experience also on Call of Duty with the success we had on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. A lot of that knowledge is getting actually built into the Battle.Net platform and the design of that.
“I think it’s been mutually beneficial, and you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty.”
Furthermore, he added, there is a strong “demand” from gamers, for Activision to implement more complex pay-to-play services for their games.
“Our gamers are telling us there’s lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they’re not getting yet. From what we see so far, additional content, as well as all the services Blizzard is offering, is that there is demand from the core gamers to pay up for that.”
This latest news coming from Activision just smells of greed. Sure, a pay-to-play business model works for games like World of Warcraft, but more console gamers, who pay more, upfront, for their games, deserve a free-to-play game.
Even though they own one of the biggest franchises in this generation (Call of Duty), should Activision be allowed to make rash decisions, some of which would obviously anger many gamers? Post your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below.
[Source]
33 Responses to “Activision Considering Imposing Fees for Online Service”
if they charge just for the ability to play the games I will quit supporting Activision titles altogether and that is not an empty promise! If they only charge for certain online services then I don’t mind because I probably wouldn’t want to use any of them anyway…I really do hate Activision though. Just because there is a demand “from core gamers” to “pay up” for certain services doesn’t mean they have to carry through with it, greedy bastards.
Who the fuck said they wanted to “pay to play”? christ activision sure loves the idea of bending over the table, hopefully either if not both sony and microsoft will tell them to go screw if they try getting this done
People will pay anything to play CoD games. Trust me the mindless drones will pay.
i feel its pathetic how they r going to make us pay they got a shit load of money just selling them i know a bunch of ppl that will quit cod series all together if this goes through. i mean seriously how much more money do they want and im sure if they charge it will b monthly cause their greety which im sure xbox players wont b happy.
finaly its bs and they shouldnt charge us if they do i and a few of my friends r done with cod series
Yeah….too bad activisions games arent good enough for anyone to want to pay to play. Activision will go out of buisness if they make this move.
I won’t mind paying if the there are ZERO issues, but I somehow doubt that will be the case.
Peace,
VG
pay to play? How about pay to stuff it up bobby’s fat greedy arse? He implements pay to play, i implement boycott of all future activision products and services. I’m not boasting i’m just not spending any money on a game that i’ll have to pay money out for to play and who’s to blame? WoW PLAYERS! YOU DID THIS! Otherwise the kotick would see no reason to do pay to play.
Here’s the thing: Pay to play means new content, constantly, and an ever expanding system of gaining experience and new abilities. How much more can they really expand on the system of abilities for CoD? Not much. New levels? Well if you own the PC version, its not too difficult to mod things and make your own. Lord knows they’re already going to charge console players for DLC maps that PC people could create themselves, and exchange for free. So what exactly is this Pay to Play going to bring us? Squat. And while CoD is fun, its not so fun that I’ll pay to play,,, especially when playing online for free is a primary reason for owning a PS3 in the first place. If they implement this, my copy of MW2 is getting sold immediately. With a 5 hour campaign, its not worth $60, and then more money for the online. No way.
LAME! Oh well we still have BC2 and M.A.G yesssssss
l bought a ps3 for free stuff what does that tell u
@wtGP u tell me.
@ Timewarp: “WoW PLAYERS! YOU DID THIS!”
Perhaps. But those who went out and bought MW2 despite the price-hike also have a lot to answer for.
I said all along that if people went out and blindly paid the extra money, Activision would see it as a green light to charge whatever the hell they want.
What concerns me is that other publishers, having seen people rush out and pay extra for MW2, may also see this as a green light to increase their prices and the range of things they charge for.
I don’t often leave a message in here, but this article is above and beyond infuriating. I thought that the boycott over the pc issue was pretty silly, (but I don’t play on pc) If they go so far as to charge us on ps3 to play mp I will be the first to set up/sign a petition/ban. The highest selling game of all time NEEDS to continue to charge us for the only extended gameplay the game has to offer. Thats downright ignorant, and greedy. As big whoop says the campaign is ONLY 5 HOURS!!! Thats pretty weak already. FN corporate money whores
Wait, what?
“Furthermore, he added, there is a strong “demand” from gamers, for Activision to implement more complex pay-to-play services for their games.”
We asked for a pay-to-play system, that also happens to be complicated… What the fuck has this guy been smoking? I think we need to stop calling Activision execs by their “position”. This guys the CFO, so…. “Nutjob that handles money”. Okay, that works.
Honestly, on one side, I don’t want to lose the ability to play MW2, but on the other, I want to see these guys go down the sh*tter for alienating all their audience. If this happens, I’ll stick with MAG and BFBC2.
@rudrick
exactly what i was thinking on your 2nd response..lmao!
Activision & bobby kotex annoy me, so I stopped buying their products awhile ago.
If you don’t like this approach then make a statement, RETURN Cod: MW2 for a refund to show how many users they would loose if they made this move. But that won’t happen since a majority of those the “purchased” this game don’t even have a credit card, Mommy bought it for them, so they won’t return the game in protest.
But there is a 30 Day window to where this can happen. So if you really want to make that statement then you only have a limited amount of time to make a difference.
@SPD55
thats pointless.. NO ONE in retail takes back open merchandise.. they might get away by saying there switching to pay to play but until its official, it holds no ground.
@Bigwhoop
the map creation ability was was taken out of MW2 thats one of the reasons the PC users were pissed..PC users are on the same level as console gamers at there Mercy.
ACTIVISION- SUCK MY DICK! I still haven’t bought MW2, was going to, but i’m not now!
There’s my stand
Oh yeah Activision, make your games Pay-to-Play especially your precious COD franchise and let’s watch it fall down.
And is there really anyone in the world who wants to pay more?
Are they planning to implement Pay-to-Play on MW2? or the next game?
Why does Blizzard have to mix with Activision. *sigh*
Oh, and Activision, WoW is an appropriate game to implement a Pay-to-Play. There’s alot of better FPS than MW2, and much more people than you think would jump to those games than paying extras. Unless they are like the Xbox360 owners who likes paying $50/yr for a little additional services. lol. I don’t think PS3 users would bite into their Pay-to-Play gimmick.
boycotting Activision in 3…2….1…..BOYCOTT INITIATED.
I really felt good that I haven’t bough this game…
@shadowjin I agree! PC users got really ripped by this game.
I’ve never purchased any of there titles and if this falls through I’ll never buy any titles of theirs.
I dont see how they could get away with this anyway. I don’t think there is anyway Sony would let them do this on the PS3 has it negates the whole play for free attitude of the PSN but you never know.
lol good thing i didnt buy mw2. fuck activision im waiting for mag
morons, and greedy ones
Wait, is BattleNet going to start costing money???
@ Cameron
true, but think about Konami’s online prowess, it is it’s own system that connects to PSN. It isn’t that unfathomable to think of that feature adding another screen saying “please enter your credit card # now.”
This is going to flop, and when it does, i’ll be at their front door with a big fat smile on my face and a hallmark card that says “Get Well Soon, Assholes” in hand.
@joinsideke
At least this is something that couldn’t happen with MW2, if all of a sudden people that bought the game to play free online had to pay there could be a law suit, too many people would be unhappy. To be honest though, if this was done right ie. exclusive content, better servers/connection priority, continued onto other games if succesful, I would support this. Although more than 5$ a month would be too much.
This is ridiculous…I remember many people saying “oh i’m not going to buy MW2 now!” after the BS that actiblizzard was talking about before, but wait what did they do? They bought it because they got caught up in “the hype.”
MW2 may be a good game, but NO first person shooter is worth the bullshit that this company is pushing for. All these people just HAD to buy the damned game and give millions to actiblizzard, which is only more fuel for their fires.
People will be people though, as ignorant as ever.
Their customers keep buying their stuff – in record numbers – no matter what they say or do. So obviously they should raise the price of everything. When people are anxious to get screwed over, only a fool would fail to take advantage of the situation.
Just judging by the comments, and I’m not surprised by this, I think people aren’t going to like this.
=)
[...] popularity to deliver a hard, punishing blow to the wallets of gamers have been around since as early as 2009. Even Michael Pachter, the man who seems to surface whenever a debate in the industry ensues, has [...]