14 DAY TRIAL // Publishers are starting to take advantage of Xbox 360 micro transactions, where extra content for released games is downloadable for a nominal fee. Players have had mixed feelings about this initiative ever since premium content showed un on Xbox Live Marketplace for the first time. New multiplayer maps, cars and even horse armor supplement the already growing XBLA trend of downloading full games for cash. Customer satisfaction can raise a great deal of money in this growing enterprise. News about Activision's quarterly earnings report came down hard, since therein lays all the evidence we need.
"During the quarter our Call of Duty maps generated approximately $1 million in revenue, a critical first step in exploiting the online revenue potential and extending the shelf life of our games. This holiday we'll look to further capitalize on the success of the franchise and its online capabilities," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed to Gamespot.
The company got it right. Call of Duty 2 has consistently been the top played Xbox 360 game over Xbox Live, and it seems gamers are willing to pay up for extra content. Kotick went into details with the number of downloads and money made by each downloadable map pack. Surprisingly, the free bonus pack wasn't the most popular release. Including two maps, it rallied 334,000 downloads. The $5 Skirmish Map Pack was downloaded 105,000 times only to raise $368,000. The bulk of it all comes from the $10 Invasion Map Pack that had 66,000 hits and raked in an amazing half a million dollars. With numbers like those, it's obvious Activision will continue to pursue the potential of downloadable content for its current and future projects.
In the long run however, this can prove hazardous to individual creativity. Game developers have had a long standing of released moding tools for their creations, in an attempt to maximize player induced content. With such a record sale on Activision's behalf, companies have more incentive now to ban moders. What if moding was illegal and we all had to buy official map packs and addons? After all, good sales don't directly imply great merchandise since game content might turn sub par.