Pachter Wants You to Pay For Call of Duty Online

[Ares]

Pachter Wants You to Pay For Call of Duty Online
07/17/2010 Written by Zak Islam

There’s no doubt that the Call of Duty series is known for its online multiplayer experiences and it’s arguably the major selling factor for most of the installments in the franchise. However, is the multiplayer component so popular that Activision should start charging its players to play it? Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, certainly thinks so.
Pachter told IndustryGamers that the gaming industry should start considering adding subscriptions to the multiplayer aspect of their games:

We estimate that a total of 12 million consumers are playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for an average of 10 hours per week on the two platforms’ respective networks, and the continued enjoyment of this game (along with an estimated 6 million Halo online players, 3 million EA Sports players, and 5 million players playing other games, such as Battlefield, Red Dead Redemption, Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto) has sucked the available time away from what otherwise would be spent playing newly purchased games.”We see this as a continuing problem, and think that unless and until the publishers come up with a business model that appropriately captures the value created by the multiplayer experience, we are destined to see a migration of game playing away from packaged goods purchases and toward multiplayer online.

We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game, to take the first step to address monetization of multiplayer. It is too early to tell whether that will be a monthly subscription, tournament entry fees, microtransaction fees, or a combination of all three, but we expect to see the company take some action by year-end, when Call of Duty Black Ops launches.

Would you mind paying a fee to play certain games online on the PlayStation 3? Or is Patcher just talking nonsense?

Source: PSLS

 

[Nugu]

I'll never pay a online fee for anything but MMOs, especially not something like CoD where a PLAYER plays host to the game with no dedicated servers.

 

[malvado78]

I know the title of the thread is from the article and you did not make it but Patcher is just a financial analyst. He is not saying he wants anyone to pay to play. He took what Kotick said last year (He would like a subscription based model for the COD series just like their very successful WOW model). Patcher is only saying he sees how this make financial sense and could see it working.

Patcher gets a lot of crap but I feel his takes on the industry are normally pretty good.

But his one I do not see how it would work. I for one will NOT pay a subscription to play. I currently have dial up and go to friends house to play COD with them now and then. But for all those crying about the possibility of this seem to have n o problem paying $15 for 5 new maps every other month. If they gave you the maps for free, had dedicated servers instead of peer to peer and charged $5 - $10 a month I bet people would whine and still pay.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[krzywica]

Yeah this would be a real great move for them with Medal Of Honor coming out soon and Battlefield 3 on the horizon....not to mention Bad Company 2. Everyone would just flock to the competitor...

 

[malvado78]

Yeah this would be a real great move for them with Medal Of Honor coming out soon and Battlefield 3 on the horizon....not to mention Bad Company 2. Everyone would just flock to the competitor...

Thanks is what was said about Battlefield Bad Company 2, MAG, '<'insert shooter here'>'...

MW2 is still the King of shooters despite many many complaints. I love playing and hope this subscription idea dies as I will not pay for it but I am afraid all the whiners won't backup their talk and not pay for it.

Luckily Infinity Ward is no longer with Activision so maybe this is all a moot point and the rest of the COD series will be ruined.

 

[krzywica]

Thanks is what was said about Battlefield Bad Company 2, MAG, '<'insert shooter here'>'...

MW2 is still the King of shooters despite many many complaints. I love playing and hope this subscription idea dies as I will not pay for it but I am afraid all the whiners won't backup their talk and not pay for it.

Luckily Infinity Ward is no longer with Activision so maybe this is all a moot point and the rest of the COD series will be ruined.

MW2 gets a big fat "meh" from me. Way too much of a one dimensional FPS for my taste, gotta have some strategy and the ability to play diverse roles that actually affect the outcome of the game...