Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, has squashed fears that the company is prepping a subscription plan for Call of Duty’s multiplayer component, insisting the firm will “never, ever charge” for the feature.
The comments come in response to speculation ignited by Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who claimed that Activision was flirting with the idea of transitioning from a free, out-of-the-box multiplayer experience to a paid-for service.
"Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no," said Hirshberg. "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 monetise; it’s part of the package," he 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. [Pachter] is probably looking at meta-trends in the world and in culture about online services and new ways things should be monetised from Netflix to cloud-based computing."
Wrapping up, Hirshberg added: "All I’m trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer."
Take a butcher’s at our review of Call of Duty: Black Ops here.