Activision hasn’t announced any plans for a subscription model yet, but with Kotick in charge of Call of Duty, the new Bungie game, Starcraft II and World of Warcraft, it’s hard to believe he’d let the opportunity to scrape more money from these mega-franchises slide.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said the switch may not be far off, and this is how it would work:
- Multiplayer will still be free
- Small virtual products will sell for $1, with the goal of all 14 million multiplayers sending in $1 or $2 a month
- $5/month subscription for Black Ops gets players all virtual goods and map packs, and maybe exclusive tournaments and achievements
- $10/month subscription for all Call of Duty games gets all in-game products, ladders, tournaments, achievements, map packs and game modes
- $15/month “all accesss pass” for WoW, Starcraft II, the new Bungie game, and all CoD games. WoW subscribers already pay $15/month, so no loss for players there.
Yeah they should change all those numbers to $0 and stop trying to milk us for all we’re worth.
I LOOOOVE the CoD games and playing them online, they’re absolutely excellent, but I’m 100% if they start charging even for “premium multiplayer” I’m done.
I stand with my colleague Mr. Deathstream in saying “Fuck that shit.” I understand 15 bucks a month for WoW, as it is an entirely online game, but for these other titles, no. No way.
Ha. If Blizzard lets Activision dictate to them and start charging for Starcraft II or Diablo III (they’re not even MMO’s for christ sake) then I will say fuck it – even to the gaming god that Blizz is.
if they start charging i simply just wont pick up another game even related to ativision, i will also go as far as to try boycott the games in which it is planned for.
Jon, It’s only Wedbush Securities (no Morgan). Refer to GameTrailers’ Bonus Round, episode 309, part 1.
Well…if that’s how they wanna play it I’ll just leave Blizzard behind too, and I’ve been waiting for Diablo 3 for a long time…same with sc2 before it came out.
Shame that I’ll probably be the only one who does that.
actually, as a wow player, this would be awesome. but whatevs.