14 DAY TRIAL // Activision, during yesterday's big investors call, showcased parts of its new strategy for the massively successful Call of Duty franchise, including a new online project and the fact that the game will receive a free-to-play version for the Chinese market.
Activision's Call of Duty franchise has been breaking sales records left and right with its two most recent releases, Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, both managing to crush other entertainment products like movies or books.
Now, the company wants to take it further than the regular yearly full-pledged game, and unveiled two big news about the future of the franchise.
First off, a new studio called Beachhead has been established, which will oversee the creation of new online and digital content for the whole Call of Duty franchise, as well as establish an online service that will be the backbone of every new title released in the series.
This service is rumored to be similar to the Battle.net one, run by Activision's sister company Blizzard for its PC titles, and might include online delivery of new games, thus cutting off services like Valve's Steam and routing all profit to Activision.
When asked if the service might eventually be the backbone of an online-only multiplayer Call of Duty title, which was rumored up until now by several analysts, the company said that it was not ready to comment on such things.
Call of Duty will become a free-to-play online multiplayer title, however, but just in China, as Activision confirmed that it's going to launch such a game customized for the Asian market.
The game is going to be free for all players, but will use microtransactions to earn money, probably selling things like perks or more powerful weapons for those that don't want to grind matches or missions in order to properly unlock them.
No word on when this free-to-play Call of Duty online game is actually launched in China or whether it will then reach other territories like North America or Europe, but expect plenty of details further down the line.