There's been no shortage of rumours lately that Call of Duty franchise owner Activision (yes, the same people who've chased away many of the members of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward with their heavy handed management style) is planning to introduce monthly fees for multiplayer access to upcoming Call of Duty releases (starting with CoD: Black Ops). Here's one reaction to that possibility, which mostly matches my own thoughts on the topic.
Just like I think it's unrealistic for game companies to expect a slice of the resale market, I believe they run the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden egg if they start charging additional fees in order to access multiplayer options. Somewhere along the line they've lost sight of the fact that $70 and up is a lot of money to pay for one game, and that offering different modes of play is one way to make that high price tag palatable to the average gamer. In fact, it's become fairly common for me to look into the online component of a new game before buying it, for the simple reason that a nice single player campaign by itself may not be enough to justify forking over the cash associated with a brand new blockbuster. Therefore, if the plan is to keep the retail price high but then add more to it for the "luxury" of playing its online component, I suspect it'll scare away more potential customers than just little ol' me.
This should be interesting to watch, although I have a sinking feeling it's going to "end badly."
[Update Jul 20/10: Both Infinity Ward and Treyarch deny the rumours.]
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