Modern Warfare 3

Consumers are used to paying $60 each for videogames that run on
consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Now the publisher behind
the industry's biggest videogame franchise— "Call of Duty"—is about to
find out whether it can get them to pay a monthly bill, too.

Activision Blizzard Inc. plans to launch an online service called Call
of Duty Elite this fall that will work with the next major edition of
the game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," and future installments of
the hyper-realistic combat-simulation game. In a move industry
executives describe as a first, Activision plans to charge a monthly
subscription fee for the service, which will provide extra content that
isn't offered on game discs sold in stores, including downloadable map
packs that give players new "Call of Duty" levels to play.

Activision executives said they haven't yet figured out how much to
charge for the service, but they expect the cost to be less than fees
for comparable online-entertainment services, such as a $7.99-a-month
Netflix Inc. movie subscription. Portions of the service will be free,
including features inspired by Facebook Inc. that will let "Call of
Duty" players meet for online gun battles with others who share various
affiliations and interests.

Another feature of the service will give "Call of Duty" players tools,
modeled on those from stock-trading websites, to analyze their
performance within the game, gauging factors such as which weapons have
been most successful for them in killing enemies.

The plan—which comes a week ahead of the videogame industry's big E3
trade show in Los Angeles—is a potentially risky bet by Activision that
it can further milk profits from consumers, who could feel the $60 they
spend on "Call of Duty" in stores is enough. Charging a monthly
subscription fee is more common for multiplayer games that run on
personal computers. The most successful of those is "World of Warcraft,"
a fantasy game from Activision's Blizzard division that has over 11
million subscribers, who typically pay $15 a month for the service.

For players with a Microsoft Corp. Xbox 360 console, a Call of Duty
Elite subscription will come on top of the $9.99 monthly fee they
typically pay for Xbox Live, the online game service that provides
players of all Xbox games to meet and compete against others online.
Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 console owners don't pay a monthly fee to
play against others online.

The PlayStation Network that provides those multiplayer capabilities
recently suffered an outage of more than three weeks after a hacker
intrusion on the service. Players of PC versions of "Call of Duty" don't
pay to play others online.

In an interview, Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said he isn't
worried about pushback from gamers about the Call of Duty Elite fee
because players will still be able to compete against each other online
without subscribing to the service. While he is coy about many of the
offerings that will be included in the service, Mr. Kotick said Call of
Duty Elite, and the customer-service operation that will be needed to
support it, wouldn't be possible if the service was free. "This is an
enormous investment," he said.

"Call of Duty" is in a unique position to seek a monthly fee from
customers. The game's previous installment, set during the Cold War and
called "Call of Duty: Black Ops," was the best-selling game last year,
with global retail sales of more than $1 billion during its first six
weeks on shelves.

Since Activision first began publishing the series almost eight years
ago, it has accounted for more than $3 billion in retail sales,
according to the company. Unlike hit movies, new versions of "Call of
Duty" come out every year, with "Modern Warfare 3" due to arrive in
stores Nov. 8.

"It's probably the biggest entertainment franchise in the world," said
Dennis Durkin, corporate vice president in Microsoft's
interactive-entertainment business.

Just as important is the degree to which "Call of Duty" has become the
biggest online-game hit on consoles. While many gamers still play the
old-fashioned way—by themselves against enemies operated by the game
itself—"Call of Duty" has been the most successful console game at
getting players to battle other human-operated opponents over the
Internet.

Jamie Berger, Activision's vice president of digital for "Call of Duty,"
said the company has about seven million daily players of the game who
spend, on average, about seven full days a year playing the game against
others online. Players often use headsets to communicate verbally with
other online gamers.

Like other publishers, Activision has earned money selling "Call of
Duty" map packs and other digital content for one-time charges, but
subscriptions to its new service could give it a continuing way to
capitalize on the online popularity of the game.

Rob Dyer, senior vice president of publisher relations at Sony's U.S.
games division, said only a few games have the audience loyalty and size
to support a subscription service like Call of Duty Elite. Mr. Dyer
said he is "very confident" other publishers will follow Activision's
lead. "There's money to be made there," he said.

CollieBuddz wrote:

the hyper-realistic combat-simulation game.

polska. wrote:So what? They'll churn out new mappacks each month or something?

If that's what I'd be paying for then sure I guess. But if it's more than fuck that, I'll buy Battlefield 3.

Cadbury wrote:I find Royal's and Blackskar's avatars funny. It looks like they are both looking at something confusing.