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Call of Duty might be the best selling franchise in the video game industry, but Activision-Blizzard is looking to double down on its earnings potential.
The company has unveiled a subscription-based online service called Call of Duty: Elite that will provide extra content for players, including map packs and social network functionality for players.
Due to launch this fall alongside Modern Warfare 3, the next installment in the series, Elite will not only give players access to downloadable content for the game, but will offer in-depth tracking of player statistics and an advanced matchmaking service, letting people play multiplayer games with friends or opponents with similar skills.
People who do not subscribe to the service will still be able to play the games online for free.
Analysts have been expecting the move for some time and say Activision-Blizzard seems to have modest initial aspirations for the service, but the company expects to grow Elite substantially in the years to come.
I think Activision hopes to get up to 1 million subscribers this year, says Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities, who predicted the company would begin offering a subscription service for Call of Duty last year. From there, they hope to get it up to 3 million next year, then up to 5 million. Over time, they'd like to migrate everyone over to it.
Activision has not yet announced what Elite's monthly subscription fee will be, though analysts expect the charge to be between $5 and $8 per month.
That would be on top of the $60 players pay for the original game - and, if their preferred platform is Microsoft's Xbox 360, they're likely also paying $60 per year for Xbox Live (which allows them to play online).
Rest of article: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/722-activision-finds-new-way-to-monetize-call-of-duty
The company has unveiled a subscription-based online service called Call of Duty: Elite that will provide extra content for players, including map packs and social network functionality for players.
Due to launch this fall alongside Modern Warfare 3, the next installment in the series, Elite will not only give players access to downloadable content for the game, but will offer in-depth tracking of player statistics and an advanced matchmaking service, letting people play multiplayer games with friends or opponents with similar skills.
People who do not subscribe to the service will still be able to play the games online for free.
Analysts have been expecting the move for some time and say Activision-Blizzard seems to have modest initial aspirations for the service, but the company expects to grow Elite substantially in the years to come.
I think Activision hopes to get up to 1 million subscribers this year, says Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities, who predicted the company would begin offering a subscription service for Call of Duty last year. From there, they hope to get it up to 3 million next year, then up to 5 million. Over time, they'd like to migrate everyone over to it.
Activision has not yet announced what Elite's monthly subscription fee will be, though analysts expect the charge to be between $5 and $8 per month.
That would be on top of the $60 players pay for the original game - and, if their preferred platform is Microsoft's Xbox 360, they're likely also paying $60 per year for Xbox Live (which allows them to play online).
Rest of article: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/722-activision-finds-new-way-to-monetize-call-of-duty