There’s been a fair bit of discussion lately regarding the pros and cons of charging people to play the online content of a game. The main focus of these discussions always seems to fall on Activision, Bobby Kotick and the Call of Duty franchise – mainly due to various comments Kotick has made in the past.
Well, an interesting thread has started up over at 360 Junkies where a poster has claimed the following;
“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.”
By the sounds of it the guy has been met with a mixed reception so he has uploaded the following video to back up his claim;
Now I’ll be the first to admit, I’m certainly no Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 fan – but I’ve done a bit of digging to see if this ‘membership’ could just be something related to an in game item, but it doesn’t seem to be. Of course, this video could very well have been doctored so I’m wearing my big fat rumour hat until I’m told otherwise.
UPDATE: Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has said the following via Twitter;
 “Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they.”
The YouTube video is being called a glitch where the screen has gotton stuck between the Modern Warfare 2 screen and the Xbox Live renewal service.
Source: PwnShop at 360 Junkies
tonycawley
Stinks of nonsense to me. They’re clearly not introducing any type of payment model on mw2 so why would it pop up in mw2? Absolute nonsense.
Erroneus
Well maybe MW3 is no where near release, so they are planing on DLC which requires some form of subscription.
It’s Activision and with the mindless MW zombies out there, it wouldn’t be that big a surprise.
cc_star
12,000,000 people playing every week and in nearly 40 weeks this is the first time anyone’s had this just ‘pop up’
bajere
just what i was thinking. game seems to popular for only one person to see that message. But stranger things have happened i guess, maybe his IP address is close to the testing server box’s and it picked it up in the alpha stage build or something.
Ed the Penguin
Nah! Not with Black Ops round the corner and MW3 announced.
I also think they’d lose competition to BFBC2 and MAG.
tonycawley
Don’t think they’d lose many players to mag. For one it’s a ps3 exclusive and wouldn’t affect xbox players. Secondly the servers on there are extremely quiet now. Sad that it never really took off because mag’s a great game.
BrendanCalls
Oh yeah they’d lose players in their droves.
Im one of those COD players that if a subscription service was introduced would run a mile. Only thing Ive already commited to no longer purchasing Activision games ever, and currently on a boycott of EA games too
tonycawley
I’m not saying it wouldn’t lose players, it absolutely would, and we’re not just talking a few, they’d lose millions of players, myself being one of them. They wouldn’t go to mag though, probably medal of honour or killzone3.
James Henderson
MW3 can’t be announced because of the ongoing legal proceedings between West/Zampella (who apparently own the rights to Modern Warfare branded games, as well as the MW2 game engine) and Activision.
They’d certainly lose people to the likes of Battlefield, Killzone and Medal of Honor though, that much I can agree on. MAG? Not so much I’d say.
aphex187
Looks legit doesn’t it though? for me if this did come in to effect then there would be noway on this Earth i would pay to play this online!
Zephyre
Thought the whole point of this was that Activision wanted a slice of the money that MS were earning on the back of the online experience of a game? I’d have expected Activision to use some sort of subscription model that didn’t involve buying MS points, their own subscription system maybe?
Does seem a bit suspect that only 1 person has reported seeing this splash screen though.
badgersnapper68
hmmn…..pay say £20 a month for broadband, pay £40+ for the game, then if you like down load some map packs at £10 (or so) a pop then if you are an xbox user pay your live subs then pay to access a game online that you’ve already paid for? If Activision or similar pull this kind of thing off then it would literally be a license to print money.
It would be a bit like buying a film and then having to pay extra every-time you want to watch it again….
Blayney
If it were to come into effect can someone with a far better legal mind than mine tell me if Activision would be in breach of contract? Everyone bought this game under the terms and conditions that online is free. Of course they probably have a clause which allows them to change anything…
carson321
Im sure nearly any t&c contract that you buy into always has a thing sying that they can be changed at any time without prior notice
Ryan1991
I can’t see why Activision would use a subscription to play on online if other FPSs such as Killzone, Bad Company and Medal of Honour won’t. Unless they’re all conspiring together to get subscriptions out into games. Dun dun duh
cc_star
DLC was launched by a few, now everyine does it
Map packs are now the norm
Pre-order in-game exclusives
Project 10 dollar has been taken up by most publishers – soon to be all?
Online passes are now the current trend, hell even Sony have got in on that act.
Whatever one does, they all follow, the only problem is no one wants to be first, and the IP has to be big
hairfreax
What, Companies conspiring together to squeeze more money out of us that’s just plain crazy talk young man
Danny3194
Oh well not bothered in the slightest bit, sold MW2 the day after it were released and made a nice profit to. If Activision do this subscription other companies wont follow, they’ll look at the reception and laugh at it.
But if EA did a subscription just think, £10 online pass, £30-40 live/PSN, £20-30 internet access, £30-40 for the game, DLC £0-15(optional), Then the subscription model, your paying over £100 already
hazelam
even if i was a fan, and i’m not, the last cod i played was, i think, number 3, if i was a fan, i wouldn’t pay for online play while it was the players hosting every single game and activision were just running the matchmaking.
i’ve paid to play mmos in the past, i don’t mind too much paying for those, because i know they have to run servers so i can play them, those servers have to basically run the game for thousands of people, running enemy ai, keeping track of all the combat and anything else that needs to be synchronised between players.
that is why i will pay for a good mmo, but would be much less likely for a game where i’d be expected to host the games.
and if, or more likely when, activision do introduce a pay to play system for cod or their other titles, they will have a massive backlash from xbox owners in particular.
jikomanzoku
Yuppers, agreee with all of that. Be interesting to see how they handle the backlash or if they’ll even give a shit.
I’ll pay for EVE because, like most MMO’s it’s absolutely massive in many, many regards. I can’t ever envisage an FPS delivering sufficient content and subsequently value for money to warrant a subscription for me. As such I can’t envisage ever paying a sub to play an FPS online, though Dust 514 and time may make a liar of me.
hazelam
but with dust i’d wager they’ll be hosting, i would imagine they have to if it’s going to be linked to eve online, and there will be content updates, and a hell of a lot less bugs than cod.