Kotick wishes COD was sub-based MMO

By Robert Purchese Published 22 June, 2010

"Our audiences are clamouring for it."

If Bobby Kotick could do one thing, he would make Call of Duty "an online subscription service" as soon as tomorrow.

That's what Activision's big boss has told the Wall Street Journal anyway. Kotick said fans were "clamouring" for an MMO-style experience.

"I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow," he said. "When you think about what the audience's interests are and how you could really satisfy bigger audiences with more inspired, creative opportunities, I would love to see us have an online Call of Duty world. I think our players would just have so much of a more compelling experience.

"I think our audiences are clamouring for it. If you look at what they're playing on Xbox Live today, we've had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers. I think we could create so many things, and make the game even more fun to play."

Curly-haired Kotick explained that Activision hadn't had a chance to put this desire into practice. When asked if an MMO-style offering was coming he replied, "Hopefully."

The Call of Duty series expands again this November with Black Ops, a Treyarch-developed instalment.

The game kick-started Microsoft's E3 press conference and made headlines when the Xbox maker revealed a "multi-year" Call of Duty DLC exclusivity deal.

All of Eurogamer's Call of Duty: Black Ops coverage can be found on the gamepage below.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (86) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • aldo_14 #1 2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure that they aren't clamouring to pay through the nose for it.
    Edited by aldo_14 at 22/06/10 @ 11:40

  • LR100 #2 2 years ago

    No one wants a COD MMO.

  • M_of_the_sys #3 2 years ago

    Translation: "We've had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live and we've not made any additional money from this. Sure people have bought the crappy DLC but that's nothing when we can charge a sub for online play!" *manic laughter*
    Edited by M_of_the_sys at 22/06/10 @ 11:41

  • towser #4 2 years ago

    Here! Have more of our money, we don't need it. Cluttering up our wallets and stuff!

    What the fucking fuck does he take us for?! Jackass.

  • BigJonno #5 2 years ago

    Hey, at least he's pretending to give a shit about the customers now. It's a big deal for him. Baby steps, Robert, baby steps.

  • kinky_mong #6 2 years ago

    Evil money-grabbing sucker of Satan's cock. I really hope he makes a really bad decision soon that bankrupts him, and he's forced to sell his organs to live.

  • Benyboyuk #7 2 years ago

    Bobby Kotick, you sir are a complete and utter scumbag! For the love of all that is holy please stop trying to rape your customers for more and more money! Otherwise you will find out the hard way that the COD goose will find it pretty difficult laying any more golden eggs with your member shoved firmly up it's rear end!

  • geeza2020 #8 2 years ago

    I'd love to see Bobby Kotick get beaten up. In fact i think i may have just come up with a new IP! Its a beat-em up, where the only character you can beat on is Bobby. Its called "Mortal Kotick", and all you do is beat him until he cries. And then beat him some more. But to finally kill him, you need to hit him in his weak-spot, his wallet.

  • Mr_Brown #9 2 years ago

    Haha, let's make COD like world of Warcraft by slapping a subscription fee on it, that's a MMO experience.

    I think it's pretty obviously what he takes his consumer base for and to be honest he is right. The amount of people have purchased DLC which is an overpriced poor product. To be honest idiots with less money isn't a bad thing really.

  • TeaFiend #10 2 years ago

    A lot of people are playing/played it, therefore using the power of math I can predict a lot of people want to pay for it monthly.

    No.

  • anomagnus #11 2 years ago

    Well, i mean my first reaction was 'he's off his rocker', but knocking the idea because of the messenger isnt fair.

    In theory, if you did it right, it could be a great idea. I'm thinking planetside, set in our world, in a fictional warzone. You could have changing borders based on your success, daily goals, even 'arena's' for the quick death matches.

    You don't need to follow the story path of an MMO, theres no point. Just a full blown war, with clans/guilds/teams doing something slightly more fun than randomly killing each other.

    Yes, it would be filled with 12 year old brats, and you'd be paying for soemthing that was free, to an extent, but you know, it could be good.

  • sneetch #12 2 years ago

    Of course he wishes it was a sub-based MMO. Who wouldn't prefer if their game was a sub-based MMO. However, I find it hard to imagine what they would add that would justify a subscription unless they go the Planetside route (and I don't see that happening, the engine couldn't handle it). New maps is the only thing that really comes to mind and they already make a shit-load from selling those.

  • LondonSquare82 #13 2 years ago

    I was reading this thread and thought of this recent story:

    [link url=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39703/Activision-wants-to-improve-image
    ]http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39703/Activisi...[/link]

    My advice to Thomas Tippl in this article would be to take away all email access, phone access and putting a legally binding gag order on Bobby Kotick. The reason being that every time he opens his mouth the "vocal minority" gets more and more angry, and frankly I can see why - he does a poor job of sounding like he cares about his customers.

  • Fab4 #14 2 years ago

    “Cheg on! You am a twart!”

  • TheHammer #15 2 years ago

    ""When you think about what the audience's interests are and how you could really satisfy bigger audiences with more inspired, creative opportunities, I would love to see us have an online Call of Duty world."

    I'm not sure how he reached that conclusion with that premise.

  • TopKatt #16 2 years ago

    So, you'd pay for the game, the Xbox Live subscription fee AND the COD MMO subscription fee?

    Bargain!!!

  • LondonSquare82 #17 2 years ago

    As a side note, it woudl be interesting to see how many COD players would transition over if it went to a pay-to-play model...

  • VandelayIndustries #18 2 years ago

    Please do it! Pretty please!

    With any luck it'll kill off this stale series.

  • feistycheese #19 2 years ago

    'Inspired' and 'creative' are not two words I generally associate with COD.

  • menage #20 2 years ago

    I wish Kotick was ....

  • Haloboy #21 2 years ago

    Heterosexual?

  • hardtech #22 2 years ago

    He does realise that he is fooling no one right?

    Wait...how many people brought the DLC maps?!

    Nevermind...

  • JahB #23 2 years ago

    As a side note, it woudl be interesting to see how many COD players would transition over if it went to a pay-to-play model...

    As much as i hate to say it, probably millions. COD sells most in the US market, and the teenage idiots i constantly have to mute would probably be willing to pay. they had no problems shelling out their cash for DLC...

  • ignatiusjreilly #24 2 years ago

    A large proprtion of COD's player base wouldn't even pay anyway, their parents do.

    He's probably right, many people would be interested and it would probably be a success.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #25 2 years ago

    It's quite a comment to be making with the new Medal of Honor game around the corner.

  • Haloboy #26 2 years ago

    I envision a mass mountain of stinking shite that meets a golden rainbow and Kotick sat on top of it. While down below are hordes of 12 year old boys pushing and shoving one another in the face and eating handfuls of the shite to get to him and the COD rainbow. I'd draw a picture but the mental image is disturbing enough.

  • presh #27 2 years ago

    Hang on -

    COD game + XBox live subscription fees = no different to COD MMO

    He's probably just sour about the fact that Activision can't charge for the multiplayer - which he's found out is the only reason all those people are playing COD:MW2, as the story in singleplayer is an utter pile of cockwank....

  • Dylbot #28 2 years ago

    Jesus, the man really doesn't know how to do good PR, does he? He might as well have said "If I could do one thing, I'd sit in your fucking house and rob you every time you even thought of the word Activision!". Before cackling maniacally and pushing the journalist into the volcano inside his lair.

    Clamouring indeed.

  • AllenSpawn #29 2 years ago

    Call
    Of
    Director!

    Monthly
    Money
    Online!

    Do it now my activision bitches, or I shall send you to respawn!

  • TopKatt #30 2 years ago

    Well, I'm going out a lunchtime to stand on the corner and force everyone who walks past me to hand over their valuables at gunpoint.

    Don't blame me though, they're clamouring for it, honest you should see them, clamour, clamour, clamour.

  • Eraysor #31 2 years ago

    The man is legendarily stupid.

  • dr_shambles #32 2 years ago

    It's great to see that one of the largest games companies in the world is run by a power crazed, money grubbing b*stard who doesn't even play videogames.

    Go capitalism!

  • LHH #33 2 years ago

    Kotick is up there with Kojima with regards to master trolling

  • AliRay #34 2 years ago

    "more inspired, creative opportunities" This will be very difficult to carry off with Treyarch as your lead dev.

  • paultendo #35 2 years ago

    Our audiences are clamouring to pay us more money, right Bobby? This guy sickens me...

  • Gambit1977 #36 2 years ago

    What a load! Did MAG have subscription? Ko-DICK!

  • GreyBeard #37 2 years ago

    Unbelievable greed. You know after scoring such a big success as COD has been, you'd think it might have crossed Kotick's mind that giving something back to the userbase, cementing their loyalty to the brand would be a good business decision going forwards. Especially after all the IW bad publicity.

  • Haloboy #38 2 years ago

    I just watched 2012. And what happens in that film is what would happen to us all if a COD MMO ever became available. I'd go pack if I were you.

  • Bru-Man #39 2 years ago

    "I think our shareholders are clamouring for it."
    Fixed.

  • local_celebrity #40 2 years ago

    How would this MMO work, Bobby? Would we just go around the world, shooting shit up?

    This man knows nothing about game design.

  • Paulie_P #41 2 years ago

    A few people are saying Kotick is being stupid. He isn't, he has saw that people are willing to pay ridiculous prices for map packs and the increase to the RRP of Call of Duty and this is just another way to milk more money out of those people. I'm sure if this ever did happen, we'll have news stories of the profits Activision are making out of it and everyone in this comment thread will comment on that saying 'people are idiots' and 'kotick is a dick' - not that they'd be wrong.

  • Sunyavadin #42 2 years ago

    "I really hope he makes a really bad decision soon [/i]"

    What, like pissing off all the devs at the studio responsible for your most recent #1 hit and having them leave?

  • Corben_Dallas #43 2 years ago

    NOT Clamouring to pay a fucking monthly subs to play COD.

    fuck off activision , and concentrate on getting rid of the glitchers in COD, U seem to not bother with moderating your multiplyer. It really pisses me off when I see ppl with coloured names(who have hacked their XBOX user name thru Windows) and u do nothing about it, Also there are Map tears/breakouts on 'Fuel' ....fix this.
    :(

  • sneetch #44 2 years ago

    @Haloboy!
    I'd draw a picture but the mental image is disturbing enough.

    Never have I read truer words on this site. ;)

  • oceanclub #45 2 years ago

    Sure, Bobby. And the fans were clamouring for you to screw the Infinity Ward guys over as well.

    What. A. Dick.

    P.

  • Slipstream #46 2 years ago

    Would it kill him to think before he speaks?

    ...with that amount of cash I suppose not lol

  • smernicki #47 2 years ago

    fuck you Bobby Kotick

    you ramped up the price of the game, i pay for access to Live, you try and fuck us over with the price of re-skinned COD4 maps, i do not want to pay a fucking sub to play the game you fucking thieving rapist

  • kangarootoo #48 2 years ago

    Well of course he would like a sub-based model. WoW makes a fortune not becasue it is addictive, but because it charges you a recurring fee to feed that addiction.

    However, I think its a little naive to call him stupid. We can call him all sorts of things, most of them true, but doing something we don't like isn't the same as doing something stupid.

    We WANT it to be stupid, because we WANT such a move to fail. However, I'm not sure it would fail. 360 players of CoD are already paying a recurring fee to play in the form of their Gold sub, the model he suggests is not inherrently flawed in any way.

    Of course if they made it a sub-based mmo, some players would leave (or simply not take it up), but I wonder how many more would say "a CoD FPS mmo... hurrah!".

  • Pulsar_t #49 2 years ago

    This cunt wouldn't be in business if an army of asshats didn't buy his shit left and right. The blame is on the consumer.
    Edited by Pulsar_t at 22/06/10 @ 13:54

  • Amblin #50 2 years ago

    Fuck off Kotick! buy 1 game for £50 or pay £150 in subs a year.....mmmmmm yeah I imagine he really does want it to be so.

    Ain't gonna make me buy it though! Simple money grabbing ploy again.

    So Kotick, doing the math, customers want to pay 3 times as much for the same game?

  • kangarootoo #51 2 years ago

    @designerheadache

    In truth, if CoD was sub-based, it wouldn't be out of date for very long.

  • richardiox #52 2 years ago

    BFBC or die!

  • chasejamie #53 2 years ago

    Haha, business men are funny.

  • M_of_the_sys #54 2 years ago

    @Kangarootoo

    "Well of course he would like a sub-based model. WoW makes a fortune not becasue it is addictive, but because it charges you a recurring fee to feed that addiction."

    I do think he has seen the success of the WoW model and wants to implement that into other successful franchises regardless of whether it's hit or miss.

  • jefranklin18 #55 2 years ago

    Coming soon: Guitar Hero MMO - you heard it here first ;)

  • FooAtari #56 2 years ago

    you are all complaining yet you are all going to run out to the supermarkerts in a few months and buy call of duty black ops with money in your hands and joy in your hearts, and make it the best selling game as usual, while bobby laughs at each and every one of you ass clowns as you pay for maps....maps you fools, things that a designer and an artist bashed out in a couple of weeks.

    you reap what you sow

    Heh, this is probably true of most people posting. It's a bit like Steam group that was against buying MW2 only for a ton of members to buy it when it was released.

  • cairbre1977 #57 2 years ago

    Is that a knife been driven into the goose who laid the golden egg. The begining of the end me thinks

  • FenderMaster #58 2 years ago

    I often wonder would online gaming ever have taken off if Id charged subscriptions for Quake online back in the day...

    Nobody is going to pay a monthly subscription for a game they've been playing free for years, if Activision tries this, the rest of the CoD fans will flock to Battlefield Bad Company 2, imo, a better game

  • Gormless #59 2 years ago

    Fuck off bobby kodick

  • Skurmedel #60 2 years ago

    Is Captain Price part of the endgame?

  • kangarootoo #61 2 years ago

    @designerheadache

    "Kotick thinks that the same userbase will hang around if asked to pay more cash"

    Well I guess I am thinking that BK won't much care whether the existing userbase sticks around, or whether a new userbase emerges (or a mix of the two, which is the most likely result).

    What BK wants is another cash making subscription game. Whether that game is much like the current CoD, or whether it will attract the existing CoD userbase, is probably not of that much interest to him.

    What he really wants is the saleable franchise name of CoD, glued to the money making power of WoW. Who plays it almost certainly doesn't matter, just so long as there are lots of them and they all pay $12 every month to do so. And I'm not sure he wouldn't get it if he set his mind to it. The idea might be lots of things, but I'm not sure it is a stupid one.

  • andywilkie35 #62 2 years ago

    What an absolute fucking cunt. Seriously, fuck off you cunt.

  • beastmaster #63 2 years ago

    Jog on knobhead!

  • carlitoswagon #64 2 years ago

    He is evil.

  • riceNpea #65 2 years ago

    i wish Kotick was sub-based. then i could depth charge him

  • Silvervein #66 2 years ago

    Don't give kotick ideas, guys. Or next thing you'll see will be CoD, the micro transaction based mmo. They will put a black market person on each map you'll have to get everything from, starting with guns and ending with ammo.

    You spent your clip? Sorry bucko, no more shooting for you untill you pay 1 dollar for another clip. First aid kit? Sure! That will be 3 dollars please. Payable by visa or mastercard! And don't forget about Supah Cheetah pack! For only 50 bucks your every shot will be a headshot for next 30 minutes, even if you fire in the sky!
    Edited by Silvervein at 22/06/10 @ 16:07

  • actionfitz #67 2 years ago

    "Kotick wishes COD was sub-based MMO
    "Our SHAREHOLDERS are clamouring for it."

    Fixed.

  • CallousB #68 2 years ago

    Meh..can't blame him to be honest.

    I bet most COD players would pay $10 a month to play online..they'd grumble but they'd pay it.

    It's business. If you have a product people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for..then you're going to charge ridiculous amounts of money for it.
    Edited by CallousB at 22/06/10 @ 16:15

  • cnlfailure #69 2 years ago

    So nobody in this thread sees the possibility of Blizzard working alongside another team on a persistent character based version of Call of Duty and thinks it might be "interesting".

    Certainly they're interested in the money, but when it comes down to it there are an awful lot of FPS players sinking hours upon hours into online gaming that counts for very little (in a progression sense). As Planetside demonstrated a combat oriented MMO can work very well.

    However nobody wants to hear that, so I'll sit over here in rational corner.

  • subedii #70 2 years ago

    We warned you what buying those overpriced map packs would lead to...

  • CheerfulWilf #71 2 years ago

    @FenderBender: If a sub-based COD sent hordes of COD players to BFBC2, that would be a bad thing. I don't want those tea-bagging brats on BFBC2. There's a better class of killer on BFBC2...

    @SparkPlug: I don't think it's true that the goose is dead (long live the goose!). There's no proof that Kotick has killed the COD brand yet, all the muppets went and bought the DLC; nothing I've read so far has made me think that COD: Black Ops won't sell a bazzillion copies.

    The afore-mentioned muppets will pay to play, regardless. I expect that the COD population would decrease if a subscription turned up, but that drop in retail sales would be more than covered by the subs. Evil companies win because they're evil, and calculating.

  • HarryTuttle #72 2 years ago

    One day there's going to be a news post quoting Kotick *not* being an outrageous money-grubbing c*nt. Except it'll be a typo.

  • melch #73 2 years ago

    kocktick probably creams himself thinking about this at night.......

  • bad09 #74 2 years ago

    Nobody wants to pay month after month for COD you ginger devil Bobby.

    Even with the obscene money it makes it's quite clear he wants a sub model to make even more obscene amounts, this MMO thing has been talked about a few times now.

    Thankfully main reason it hasn't happened yet is 50% of the COD player base are 14 year old boys and their mommies won't pay monthly subs.

  • Paulie_P #75 2 years ago

    @bad09

    Wait - he's ginger too? - I just threw up a little in my mouth.

  • iamtheoneneo #76 2 years ago

    He's a clever businessman thats for sure if the idiots hadn't paid for those map packs he defiantly wouldn't b saying this now..I blame them not him

  • lucky_jim #77 2 years ago

    Not only does he want to make it sub-based, but he probably wants you to spend £100+ on a piece of plastic tat to be able to play it. He's ruining all of Activision's franchises and COD won't be spared.

    Incidentally, why do people keep saying "math" in this thread? Are there lots of Americans here? It's "maths", damn it!

  • Nillsens #78 2 years ago

    If he wants it to be an MMO, it better offer the same levels of customisation, support, scale and simultaneous players.

    Just slapping a monthly fee on something like MW2 would be so ridiculous I don't know whether I should laugh or cry.

  • dsmx #79 2 years ago

    Almost there activision you've nearly killed COD like EA killed Medal of Honor.

  • AshTray #80 2 years ago

    This man should be put to sleep.

  • Stop-gap #81 2 years ago

    Kotick wishes COD was sub-based MMO?
    apprently Kotick wishes everything ever would print him more money, including money.

  • bifbert #82 2 years ago

    Can't think of anything funny, witty or good to say about this bit of news apart from what a complete silly cunt you are kotick. Ahhh feel better now.

  • man.the.king #83 2 years ago

    @anomagnus

    Actually, there already is something like what you've described.

    MAG.

    And it's free to play online (you still have to buy the game, of course).
    Edited by man.the.king at 23/06/10 @ 03:49

  • dingo75 #84 2 years ago

    Just ask Blizzard to re-skin WoW with a modern-day war scenario!

    Everybody wins:
    Activision gets money
    Console monkeys get WoW on consoles!
    I'm not getting in contact with those monkeys since I won't play it = less tards in other games.

  • uknortherner2000 #85 2 years ago

    @KingAntoine: "Well, he is Jewish."

    And you're a cunt. Funny how these things work out, eh?
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 23/06/10 @ 11:09

  • lordofthedunce #86 1 year ago

    It would be utterly amazing seeing the amount of people abandoning the franchise overnight.

    Do it Bobby, I dare you.