Activision CEO on TV-ready PCs, making money on 'Call of Duty' online
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says the publisher will support personal computers designed to easily connect to televisions to escape the restrictions of consoles' online services.
In a recent interview with The Financial Times (subscriptio
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...-duty-online/1n required), Kotick discusses the online popularity of its first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, particularly on Microsoft's Xbox Live service. Since its launch last November, it has consistently ranked as the most played online title on Xbox Live.
According to the article, Kotick believes the publisher is missing out on potential financial gains. "We've heard that 60% of (Microsoft's) subscribers are principally on Live because of Call of Duty," Kotick tells Financial Times. "We don't really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on Live, but it's not our network."
Kotick added Activision will "very aggressively" support devices from PC makers Dell and Hewlett Packard that allow users to connect computers to their television sets.
A key benefit to having Call of Duty on PCs is the introduction of different business models, including a monthly subscription fee for online play. Activision and studio Blizzard use that model for the wildly successful MMO World of Warcraft. Currently, Call of Duty players on PC do not need a subscription to join online multiplayer matches.
Readers, would you pay a monthly subscription fee to play Call of Duty or any other shooter online?
By Brett Molina
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