Despite long-standing rumors that Activision is looking to monetize on the multiplayer-aspect of the immensely popular Call of Duty series, CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg has stated that even though the company is seeing an increasing shift towards long-standing online relationships between consumers and publishers, the company will “never, ever charge for the [Call of Duty] multiplayer.
Though he indicated that this would specifically hold for all of the content that comes “out of the box,” he did not provide any statement regarding additional, post-release services that would require an additional charge:
“The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience and we’ll never charge for that. It’s not going to be something we’ll attempt to monetize; it’s part of the package. […] Nothing we or anyone else tries is going to work if it doesn’t have tremendous value for people and add a tremendous value to the gaming experience.”