14 DAY TRIAL // Activision is already committed to delivering at least one new Call of Duty videogame each year. It's true that one of the series is not called Modern Warfare, but all gamers know where its roots really lie.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare still selling well and with its follow up World at War getting over 11 million copies sold, Activision must be smiling all the way to the bank. But it seems that the publisher is not necessarily content and could be looking at a new way to monetize the franchise by introducing a subscription-based service related to the multiplayer component.
The rumor was sparked by Destructoid, which saw a survey, unconfirmed to really belong to Activision, posing a variety of questions related to online “gameplay enhancements.” A new kind of online service is being described and the survey says that it could arrive either packed in with a new Call of Duty game or as a separate package commanding a monthly subscription. It's interesting to note that the fresh multiplayer component could offer better stat tracking, new character skins, game modes and early access to beta versions of content and to expansions.
The rumor is somewhat supported by statements coming from the Chief Executive Officer of Activision, Bobby Kotick. He said that “When you think about other properties that we own and control, like Call of Duty, and what would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment, and how do you monetize that.” The new rumored subscription-based service would not be a MMO in the true sense of the word but it would surely be a step in that direction.
As always, such rumors need to be taken with a grain of salt until the publisher or the developer talks about it. It remains to be seen whether we will be talking about rolling a new character in the Call of Duty MMO.