Last night at Activision’s earnings call, the new C.E.O of Acitivision let out some information regarding the new Call of Duty, saying the game has a massive scale. [MW3Blog article] He said that the game will have epic action, a better community because of connectivity, and immersion. We didn’t know too much about the game he spoke of, until Kotaku caught up with a “reliable” source.
The source said Captain John “Soap” MacTavish and Captain John Price will return to complete a much, much bigger story, that features a scenario that the world is in crisis. In the same world that Russia invaded U.S. that left a cliffhanger in MW2. [Kotaku article] This further indicates that the game in question is in fact Modern Warfare 3 that has been hinted for a year and a half. The source goes on to say that the game will have an urban theme – and the game will be highly destructible. The destructible environments has been a trademark of the Battlefield series. See for yourself:
There has been rumors that Activision is looking to monetize the Call of Duty franchise by the way of a pay to play model, that is a hallmark of MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft. This was further backed up by an announcement that there would be a digital platform that would further enhance the COD experience through COD upgrades. [source] This digital platform opens COD up to more weapons inventory; new weapons, new equipments, new weapon equipment, and weapon/item upgrades. These include weapon attachments that have been a hallmark of Call of Duty since COD4. But we still don’t know that that digital platform entails or even what it’s going to be. It’s purely speculation at this point. But the idea seems obvious, and is more in conjunction with Black Ops’ introduction of Call of Duty points. These points allowed you to buy unlocks within the actual game itself, so this digital platform may be the key to opening COD to a marketplace that the industry may have never seen before.
The difference between the content in Black Ops and the forthcoming Modern Warfare 3 is that the digital platform is purely a content delivery service intended to update regularly, and not presets as with previous games in the series. This project has been in development for 2 years, and is headed by Beachhead Studios.
Activision made it perfectly clear that when MW3 launches this year, players will start out with the same feature sets as the previous games in the series. They said that they can enhance their experience through this digital platform, but they also stressed that they’re optional add-ons.
The supposed pay to play model has been a rampant rumor since it was spoken about by former C.E.O. Bobby Kotick, but it’s a rumor that has been debunked by both Treyarch and Infinity Ward. In the investor call, Eric Hirshberg confirmed that the game will NOT be pay to play.
The waiting continues….
