Bobby Kotick Wants Call of Duty Online Subscription Service
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bobby ‘Moneybags’ Kotick expressed interest in turning Call of Duty into some sort of online subscription service.
WSJ: If you could snap your fingers, and instantly make one change in your company, what would it be, and why?
Mr. Kotick: I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow. 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.
WSJ: Is that coming?
Mr. Kotick: Hopefully.
WSJ: Are the customers ready for it?
Mr. Kotick: I think our audiences are clamoring 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. We haven’t really had a chance to do that yet, so that would be my snap of the fingers.
I know it’s all the rage nowadays to bash Bobby Kotick, but I’m not going to hate the guy just because it’s the popular opinion. No, I hate him because he’s a greedy shit that has no love for gamers, who he happens to see as walking dollar signs. Every time you yell “Your mother is a whore!” into the mic during a heated game of Call of Duty, Kotick hears “Ching ching ching ching whore!” I’m not sure why he hears “whore,” but that’s his problem, not mine.
I find it offensive that Kotick makes vague statements like “satisfy bigger audiences” and “make the game even more fun to play,” like this is anything other than a grab for money. Does he really think he’s tricking us into thinking he’s looking out for our interests?
You don’t decide to charge people a subscription fee and then come up with the idea of why you’re charging them. That’s completely backwards and makes your goal painfully obvious, which is to charge people even more money for an existing product/service.
(NEOGAF)
