Speaking in an interview with Joystiq, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick discussed the viability of a subscription model versus downloadable content.
Kotick referred to the fact that Xbox 360 gamers already pay a US$5 per month subscription for the Gold LIVE service, a small portion of which winds up in the hands of Activision. Kotick himself reckons that “Call of Duty games probably represent more than 50% of the total Xbox Live traffic.” CVG also recently reported that Xbox 360 has so far snagged 55% of Black Ops sales.
Kotick compared the value of the LIVE subscription service to Activision Blizzard’s World of WarCraft service, where customer service makes up for a considerable portion of the subscription fees. Speaking of the LIVE subscription fees, Kotick said that Activision receives a “very modest amount of the subscription fees,” and he would like to see any further cost increases “directly benefitting the Call of Duty players.”
Kotick went on to explain why he thinks that the DLC model is far better than a potential subscription model: “The best way to keep people engaged in your game experience is keep giving them more great content. Our customers need to be satisfied that there is a price-value relationship that they feel great about.”
“As business models evolve, as the way you distribute content evolves, as the ability to do things online changes in terms of pricing or trial or sample, I think we’ve definitely always been out in front of the rest of our competitors. But I think you always need to be sensitive to that relationship and not crossing the line to a place where the customer feels like they have been taken advantage of,” said Kotick.
“We do spend a lot of time doing audience research to see about pricing models. You can have a virtual item sale, pay for a level, you can pay for a downloadable content pack, you can pay for a refill product. There’s so many different ways, and they are evolving so quickly that we are spending a lot of time evaluating all these different ways that consumers can feel good about how much they pay for their video game experiences.”
So, perhaps Kotick thinks that, for the time being at least, a subscription service for Call of Duty games would leave the customer feeling as if they had been taken advantage of. Activision had no trouble shifting plenty of Modern Warfare 2 map packs for US$15 a pop, so it makes sense to stick with what consumers are apparently happy with, rather than raise ire by implementing a new subscription service for the franchise.
Would you prefer a subscription service for Call of Duty games, or the curent piecemeal DLC model? Discuss on the MyGaming forum.
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