Kotick: Attention Not on Call of Duty Subscription Model

Bobby Kotick hit CNBC to explain the successes and failures of his company Activision recently.  The CEO touched on a number of subject which were all revealed on Activision’s lower than expected quarterly report.  We’ve lost Guitar Hero, and have heard about the success of Blizzard but one very major point that was glazed over on the conference call was Call of Duty’s Project Beachhead which was announced as a studio that has been organized to provide “premium” Call of Duty content for the users.

” You know, honestly, we don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about how do you covert this Call of Duty experience to a subscription model. ”  “What we really spend time thinking about is how do you create really compelling Call of Duty experiences that are going to delight our audiences, and usually people are willing to pay for the content if you deliver them something spectacular.  Which is our intention.”

The answer in itself is politically correct when it comes to what gamers want to hear.  But, there’s a big difference between saying something and doing something.  It’s not like Activision is above riding a franchise into the ground like they did with Guitar Hero.  Call of Duty is no different.  I love Call of Duty, it’s a great casual first person shooter that you can pick up and play at any time if just for the sheer reason that there’s always a few hundred thousand people playing at any given time on whatever network you choose.  But, the fact of the matter is without actual innovation in the game itself people will get tired of it.  At which point they won’t buy it.  Let alone pay monthly for it.  If it’s something new you’re gonna have a much better shot at selling it as a subscription than to just up and start charging for something people have been playing for years for free.