Call of Currency; Monetization for COD Planned
Surprise, surprise. Activision wants more money from Call of Duty players, but for additional services for the already incredibly popular franchise.
With one of the world’s best selling franchises in video gaming, Activision has been raking in the dough hand over fist through massive Call of Duty sales. But when you’ve got a product that hot, what reason do you have to stop making it bigger, and enticing consumers to part with more of their hard earned cash? None, apparently, and Bobby Kotick seems quite confident about their new plan to do so. While details on what exactly will be offered in exchange for incremental payments were virtually nonexistent, confirmation of the new plan has pointed to Beachhead Studios as the central development force behind it. Mr. Kotick made it clear that all currently free services will remain intact and free of charge, and are to be accompanied by the new premium content:
The Beachhead initiatives will be… an integral part to the innovation signature nature of the Call of Duty game that we’re releasing this year. And I just wanted to back up on the earlier question [and] make sure that I underscore that while we are attempting to deliver new incremental experiences that have yet heretofore been unseen by our players, we are not attempting to monetise or take any experience away that currently comes as part of the value proposition of buying the game. I think, very importantly, our community of Call of Duty players is one that we celebrate and you will see a lot of new services and capabilities that will be provided free of charge to all of our customers.
Hearing Bobby Kotick use the word “innovative” in reference to Call of Duty certainly sounds hypocritical at this point, but with the franchise long past due for some new inventive features, maybe this plan will really pull out the big guns. It seems unfortunate that new features and innovations would not simply be included as a part of the packaging for their next release, so hopefully whatever is up their sleeves is worth the cash. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg elaborated a bit on their intended direction:
Well, we haven’t yet released the details of the business model of Beachhead. The passion that people have for the game, the amount of time they’re willing to engage with one another in a connected way. Our goal has been to create an experience that was amplifying enough and energising enough and igniting enough to that community to be able to be monetised.
The Call of Duty franchise is already well endowed with additional content for each iteration, with expensive map packs offering a measly four maps for $15 each. It’s certainly possible to nickle and dime players further by offering unique weapons, killstreaks, perks, costumes, or other accessories for purchase, but that would be as simple as the standard practice of just releasing new DLC. Therefore, something better must be on the way, and we’ll find out what soon, since more details were promised to be revealed in the coming weeks. PlayStation LifeStyle will deliver the good word when it arrives. Until then, what would you like to see coming from the new Call of Duty business model?
[Via]
32 Responses to “Call of Currency; Monetization for COD Planned”
It looks similar to SOCOM Pro but I have a feeling it isn’t going to be free if you buy the game new like Pro was for Socom 4.
Bobby Kotick has nice set of hair and teeth, hmm very intresting.
He looks like ellen degenerices father or brother
Playstation+ for COD but here comes the shitstorm of how greedy this is.
all anyone needs to know is one word, Kotick. i don’t think anyone ever realized, that is not a photoshopped pic, he really has dollar signs for eyes.
We don’t even know what is being offered, no need to make any assumptions.
Kotick, fundamentally one of the worst people in videogame public relations, kills a kitten every time he opens his mouth.
It’s too bad Activision hasn’t replaced him. But it will surely happen…one day.
not until activision dislikes money, or he crosses a line. he has been making them bundles and oodles of money so he won’t be going anywhere in the near future. unfortunately .
That’s the thing, though; do you really think if they replaced Kotick with another schmuck, he/she couldn’t do the same thing?
The develops are what sells the game. Sure, PR in the videogame industry is important, but Activision has ALWAYS done well with marketing thanks to their near-unlimited funds.
Kotick could be replaced with just about any PR schmo fresh out of college, and Activision would still be raking in the dough.
IMO.
The more and more I read articles like this one, the more and more I question why I buy or play Call of Duty games.
Can we have Bobby Kotick’s head on a stake already or at least fire his ass.
Off with his head! With a stick… with a stick… pew! pew! pew!
Good thing I’ve been boycotting Activision and COD.
If I have to pay extra for a noob tube, I’ll do it!
were did vince and jason go they need to hurry up and put out a new fps to kill cod. activision can take their fees and shove it
There must be some trolls going through and giving everyone a thumbs down. Seriously. Bobby Kotick is a whore. Whore. Whore. Whore. Whore. Whore.
In response to idiots, I went through and gave you all a free thumbs up.
Thank you, Death_Shadow
.
LOL I’ve noticed that. In a previous post, I congratulated someone for losing 12 pounds while the PSN has been down. It somehow managed to get two or three thumbs down.
haha they want to make the game innovative? How about making it have some measure of realism. Get rid of those stupid perks. Add bullet drop like in BF.
well its not 4 maps for 15$ its 5 maps , well 4 mp maps and 1 zombie map . no one is forced to buy these packs if they really don’t want to. also i’m pretty sure the project beachhead is working on is a halo waypoint type portal for call of duty , that has call of duty news , check your achivments , ect. which i think is pretty cool imo.
so, in essence, the same thing offered on killzone.com for free? but, with a fee attached?
He wasn’t really doing halo waypoint justice with that description. I can’t remember exactly what it had, but I remember seeing an episode of some halo cartoon for free. That was pretty soon after it came out so I don’t know if it has changed or anything, but even so if killzone.com just tracks your stats and has news then it doesn’t offer as much at all.
sorry , i just assumed ppl would know what halo waypoint was. fee for what? the article says its free , halo waypoint was free, i doubt they would charge anything for this. its not like a website its a program/appplication for ps3/360,
this guy is the donald trump of video games. he maybe greedy but who isn’t that being said he knows how to turn 10¢ in to 60$. like the notorious b.i.g once said gimmie the loot.
Donald Trump is Richard Branson compared to this guy. The moment every building in NYC is a Trump Tower is the moment that Kotick and Trump will be in the same category.
“all currently free services will remain intact and free of charge, and are to be accompanied by the new premium content”
What services?! Their online services?! (Which are kept online only by Sony and Microsoft in the first place). They have no services to provide for people in the first place apart from their job as publishers and they do a shit job of that as it is. I know in the past these people have come up with some extremely ignorant stuff but this is just borderline retarded.
Try playing any EA sports game before 08 online. It isn’t just PSN exists so you can play any game. No offence, but you shouldn’t use terms like extremely ignorant and borderline retarded when you’re wrong.
Try asking what I was implying before jumping onto the insults. Activision are talking like they actually had a service to provide people yes they manage their severs but those wouldn’t really have anywhere to be had it not been for the PSN, XBL Marketplace to begin with. I can’t see anyway on the PSN for Activision to bring any kind of service apart from providing severs for their games.
Jumping onto what insults? I think you said some ridiculous things considering the facts. It isn’t up to me if you are insulted by that, it wasn’t my intention. They don’t NEED PSN or XBL for anything, they just go through them because they are whats on each console. If they needed any help how would PC players get online?
I mean if I am just getting technical on you for saying “only by Sony and Microsoft” then my bad, but I would still have to point at the poor choice of words later to be a bit ironic
don’t like it? oh well, tough.
So, who photoshopped Kotick’s horns out?
i think they were removed to take away some of his powers (dun dun dun)