Activision investigating further monetisation of its online games, including Call of Duty

Posted by Mister-X on November 16th, 2009 at 08:53am

According to Activision Blizzard CFO Thomas Tippl, gamers should expect to pay for online services related to future entries to the publisher’s biggest franchises, which includes Call of Duty.

Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Conference last week, Tippl said that Activision’s future titles will include online monetisation models similar to World of Warcraft, a game that requires a monthly subscription to play:

“It’s definitely an aspiration that we see potential in,” said Tippl, “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.”

Citing the publisher’s success and experience with Call of Duty on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network, Tippl expects that their past work on those platforms will inform future decisions and contribute to their own online content distribution service, Battle.Net

“I think it’s been mutually beneficial,” Tippl continued, “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.”

“Our gamers are telling us there’s lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they’re not getting yet,” added Tippl. “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.”

What say you? Do you wish to pay for additional online services, or pay monthly subscription fees for games that are, for all intents and purposes, currently ‘free’ to play online?

Source: CVG