The game will allow players to enjoy maps from Modern Warfare and sequel

Aug 6, 2012 08:31 GMT  ·  By

At the moment, Call of Duty Online, the free-to-play shooter based on the well-known franchise from Activision Blizzard, is only available for players in China, but the publisher is exploring the possibility of launching it in other countries as well.

Eric Hirshberg, who is the leader of the publishing division inside Activision, stated, “I think we look at the Call of Duty Online game in China on its own merit as a great opportunity.”

He added, “That’s not to say that we won’t gain learnings about how it works in the micro-transaction-based format for the game. And there are a few other regions where that would be very relevant. So — but we certainly are not ready to announce any plans in that regard.”

The executive has not mentioned which other territories might be suited for the core game concept of Call of Duty Online, but presumably Activision is thinking about other areas where original game sales are low and microtransaction-driven titles have managed to get significant audiences.

Call of Duty Online uses maps taken from the first and the second releases in the Modern Warfare line and allows players to get a taste of the multiplayer action that develops around them, although there’s a lack of the more advanced options that are included in full titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty is one of the most important franchises for Activision, and the company is looking for ways to expand the audience for its flagship series and extract more revenue from it.

At the moment, developer Treyarch is working on Black Ops II, which will be launched during the fall of this year and which will introduce a new near-future single-player campaign and will expand on the multiplayer mode just as Activision expands on the functionality of the Elite service.