"Call of Duty får månadsavgift"

I en intervju med Industry Gamers säger spelbranschens mest kände analytiker Michael Pachter på Wedbush Morgan Securities att online-spelande leder till att folk lägger mindre pengar på spel. Det blir bara allt mer populärt och gör att spelen håller betydligt längre än tidigare.

Lösningen, enligt Pachter, är att bland annat Activision ska börja ta betalt för online-spelande i Call of Duty: Black Ops.

"We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game, to take the first step to address monetization of multiplayer. It is too early to tell whether that will be a monthly subscription, tournament entry fees, microtransaction fees, or a combination of all three, but we expect to see the company take some action by year-end, when Call of Duty Black Ops launches", säger Pachter.

"The company has the greatest experience of the Western publishers with multiplayer subscriptions, given its huge success with World of Warcraft, and we expect Activision to apply a WoW-type model to its Call of Duty franchise. It is likely that Activision will ease the pain of consumers, and will continue to offer some form of free multiplayer, at least for a while, but we believe it is imperative that the company begin to capture some value from the huge number of hours spent [online]", avslutar han.