Online fees for COD rubbished

Despite suggestions to the contrary, it looks as if Activision has absolutely no plans to introduce additional fees for the online multiplayer component of Call of Duty.

Speaking on his blog FourZeroTwo, Infinity Ward’s creative strategist Robert Bowling issued the following blanket statement: To be clear: There is not, and will never be, additional fees required to subscribe and play Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.

No such plan exists for this or any other Call of Duty (including the upcoming Black Ops).”

Treyarch’s Josh Olin then added via Twitter: No, you will not have to ‘Pay to Play’ Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed.”

Furthermore, Activision’s Dan Amrich said on his personal blog that there’s not a secret portal to some nefarious plot to charge people for COD multiplayer — and there are no plans to do that”.

And in case there’s any lingering doubt, an official statement from the publisher issued to IGN asserts that reports of a subscription membership in Modern Warfare 2 are not true. Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer”.

Last week analyst Michael Pachter claimed that it is incumbent on Activision” to take the first steps to further monetise the online multiplayer component of popular FPS titles.

That statement followed the admission from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick last month that he would love to introduce a subscription model for the series.