Call of Duty safe from online subscriptions.

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I'm pretty sure all my fellow CoD fans remember mid June when Bobby "Satan" Kotick said that he would make CoD's multiplayer subscription based in a hearbeat. It was a statement that made gamers' blood run cold and their rage run red hot. Well, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg had shot that idea down. I give you the article copy/pasta.

In mid-June, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sent shivers down the spines of Call of Duty players everywhere. When asked by the Wall Street Journal what one thing he would change about his company, he bluntly said, "I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow." That sentiment was echoed by Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter three weeks ago, when he predicted Activision would find a way to monetize the shooter series' wildly popular online modes.


Activision is assuring gamers that Call of Duty multiplayer will always be free.


Thankfully, the idea of charging for Call of Duty online multiplayer has been shot down--by none other than Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg. "Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no," he told Industry Gamers this week. "The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience, and we'll never charge for that. It's not going to be something we'll attempt to monetize; it's part of the package."

Hirshberg continued, "Nothing we or anyone else tries is going to work if it doesn't have tremendous value for people and add a tremendous value to the gaming experience. …There are certainly a lot of behavioral shifts toward long-standing online relationships… But at the end of the day, all I'm trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer."

Hirshberg's words will come as a comfort to the millions of gamers who paid a collective $650 million to pick up Call of Duty: Black Ops during its first five days on the market. The game boasted over 1 million players on Xbox Live within hours of its release, proving the popularity of its online competitive multiplayer mode.



Its nice to know that there's someone in that company that hasn't been tainted by Kotick. Activision has a big reputation of being money grubbers and its comforting to see that they have a conscience, even if its only some of them.
 
Whilst I'm not a CoD fan and an active Activision hater, it is indeed nice to see one of them demonstrating they aren't all just soulless, heartless money-hoarding fucks out to make a profit off of gamers rather than trying to produce quality games.