Industry analyst Michael Pachter has stated that he was “disappointed to hear Activision’s new head of publishing flatly deny the company’s plans to charge for multiplayer.” Though rumors regarding a possible fee for the multiplayer component of the popular Call of Duty franchise have been floating around for several years now, the CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg, recently stated that the company would never charge for the multiplayer of Call of Duty as it comes out of the box.
Though this position by Activision may initially seem very appealing from a consumer perspective, Pachter believes “that until the publishers address monetization of multiplayer, game sales will continue to be challenged by the publishers’ altruistic decision to provide significantly more entertainment value per hour than ever in history.” He further explained that he believes the monetization of multiplayer components to be one of the greatest opportunities for publishers to maximize their revenues.
Pachter did not specify what he would consider to be a reasonable price for the multiplayer component of games like Call of Duty.