Activision is on the case when it comes to making money and mercilessly killing off the less cash lusty developers, and after yesterday confirming they’re cutting another couple of IP’s (Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero) the monster company from creative hell are all set for the next step.
Reports yesterday circulating that people over at Activision (team called Beachhead) are now constructing some kind of digital content and related licenses for what many fear to be the infamous ‘CoD subscription plan’, that will add another layer of ‘better’/properly functioning maybe – content on to the multiplayer that you will have to pay each month to have the dandy privilege of accessing.
Now we have some news that Activision are going to be releasing a new Call Of Duty that is free to play for the gamers of China (with micro transactions opening up avenues of the game you are actually interested in), although this title is not planned for release this year according to Eric Hirshberg from Activision.
Instead they plan to flood this year’s market with original-and-in-no-way-more-concerened-with-commercial-grease-money-than-videogame-evolution titles like (wait for it) X-Men: First Class The Game and Transformers 3 The Game. Oh deary me. It’s both hilarious and pathetic at the same time, I know I’m probably coming across as hideously biased and I do apologise, but sometimes it has to be done. Nothing personal Activision, CoD aside your IP strategy is umm broken?
Let’s wait and see what Raven, Infinity Ward (what’s left of them), and Sledgehammer come up with for the next CoD.
UPDATE: Activision Give More Detail About “Beachhead’s” Role:
(Courtesy of CVG)
“Beachhead will create a best-in-class online community, exclusive content and a suite of services for our Call of Duty fans to supercharge the online gaming experience like never before.
“The platform will support in-game integration and bring online experiences and console play together for the first time. The platform has been in development for over a year, and we’re very excited about the increased value we can bring to the community. We look forward to sharing more specifics on this exciting new endeavor with you in the near future.”
Asked by an analyst whether Beachhead might be creating some kind of subscription-based offering, Activision Blizzard chief financial officer Thomas Tippl said: “We’re not yet ready to talk about the details of Beachhead, but when we are, we are going to present in detail what the content is, what the services are, et cetera. So you just have to stay tuned on that.”
COE Bobby Kotick added: “We’ve always said that the big are getting bigger but not only are the big getting bigger in retail, as players gravitate to the best experiences and we push the limits on our best-in-class execution, we have also leveraged our internal platforms to offer audiences choice and convenience through the provision of direct distribution of Blizzard games. We expect to enhance the Call of Duty experience in similar ways with our new digital platform from Beachhead.”
That ain’t looking pretty to me, and I bet that if this is what we all think it is – scores of current CoD players will be put off. Oops.