If you read our Editor’s Message already, you’ll have heard that Michael Pachter is asking publishers to charge for multiplayer aspects of their games on top of subscriptions like Xbox Live. He also claimed that Activision should take the first step in introducing this since they have the biggest multiplayer game on the market – it looks like they may have set the ball rolling.
A thread posted by a user on the Xbox 360 Junkies forums has shown a video of a user trying to join a friend’s Call of Duty game, only to be denied. Here’s what the thread starter, PwnShop, posted:
I was trying to join a friend’s session on MW2 the other day and had this screen pop up. It clearly says at the top of this menu: “Modern Warfare 2 Membersh”, in which we can confidently assume that the last word is “Memberships”. If you’ll notice at the bottom is an option to “Add Microsoft Points”, clearly indicating that this was intended to be a menu for purchasing different levels of Membership, presumably memberships would have been offered in a variety of durations.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has publicly expressed his dismay at the fact that 60% of gamers on Xbox Live are playing Activision’s games, and they see no money from Microsoft’s earnings on Xbox Live – some of which he claims is rightfully his. Here’s the video of the supposed evidence:
This can, and if the evidence shown is correct, will be implemented. As I said in my Editor’s Message, it would be a shame to see such things implemented into games.
