If Activision Blizzard hasn’t angered you enough recently, their CFO, Thomas Tippl, in a recent conference, gave some nerve-wrecking words about how Activision may be handling their online games. Not to mention, this news is based on an already upsetting business model.
According to Tippl, gamers can expect in the future, to pay for online services for Activision games. This business model, Tippl says, is based on the model Blizzard uses for their highly successful World of Warcraft series.
“It’s definitely an aspiration that we see potential in, particularly as we look at different business models to monetize the online gameplay.“There’s good knowledge exchange happening between the Blizzard folks and our online guys.
“We have great experience also on Call of Duty with the success we had on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. A lot of that knowledge is getting actually built into the Battle.Net platform and the design of that.
“I think it’s been mutually beneficial, and you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty.”
Furthermore, he added, there is a strong “demand” from gamers, for Activision to implement more complex pay-to-play services for their games.
“Our gamers are telling us there’s lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they’re not getting yet. From what we see so far, additional content, as well as all the services Blizzard is offering, is that there is demand from the core gamers to pay up for that.”
This latest news coming from Activision just smells of greed. Sure, a pay-to-play business model works for games like World of Warcraft, but more console gamers, who pay more, upfront, for their games, deserve a free-to-play game.
Even though they own one of the biggest franchises in this generation (Call of Duty), should Activision be allowed to make rash decisions, some of which would obviously anger many gamers? Post your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below.
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