It’s that time of year when publishers hold investor calls to report on their quarterly and yearly financial status. The companies also take this time to punt to the investors and the press some news on their current projects.
Aside from tooting their financial horns, during the Activision Blizzard investor call which was held yesterday (9 May 2011), the company hinted at some grand plans for the Call of Duty franchise. “This year’s Call of Duty has a very high bar to exceed. We believe this year’s Call of Duty initiatives will result in the best Call of Duty experiences we have created to date,” said Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO.
“The creative excellence and sheer scale of the game we are making, and the unprecedented online universe that will accompany it, will reset the bar for this genre, giving players a new level of immersion, connectivity, community and, of course, epic action,” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg.
Eric Hirshberg
It is likely that Activision will reveal their Call of Duty plans at the upcoming E3.
That ‘online universe’ Hirshberg was talking about is its Beachhead digital platform, which the publisher discussed, revealing some details on what the platform will actually do. Apparently cross-platform online play is a serious possibility for Beachhead.
Activision said “this platform will include a suite of services and content plan that will unite and ignite the community like never before. The platform will support in-game integration and bring online experiences and console play together for the first time. It’s been in development for almost two years and we’re very excited about the increased value and excitement we can bring to our community through this platform,” – whatever that means.
Beachhead will be an integral part of this year’s yet unannounced Call of Duty title: “It is the response to the passion people have for the game, the amount that people want to engage one another in a connected way. We want to create an experience that was amplifying enough to be able to be monetized,” said Hirshberg.
And there’s the rub – a system of monetisation associated with Beachhead. Of course, one could say that the pricey Call of Duty DLC that has now become common practice for the publisher had already sent them well along that path.
“A lot of new capabilities and services [will be] provided free of charge to our customers,” said Kotick. I can see it now: custom/novelty decals for guns? $5 please. Different camo gear? $5 please. A handful of new rehashed maps from previous CoD titles (one with a zombie in it)? $15 please.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Activision was quick to allay fears that they are planning to ditch free online multiplayer: “We are not attempting to monetize or take any experience away that currently counts as part of the value proposition of buying the game.”
According to sources at Eurogamer, the next Call of Duty game is codenamed Project Collossus and will hit shelves on 8 November. This falls within CoD’s traditional launch window, and will likely pit it up against EA and DICE’s touted CoD killer – Battlefield 3. We could be in for an interesting holiday season in the online FPS world.
New Call of Duty game to feature digital content platform monetisation scheme << Comments and views
Sources: Industry Gamers, Eurogamer
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