Call of Duty Online Announced | DestroyRepeat

Activision today confirmed the existence of Call of Duty Online. It’s a Free to Play Call of Duty title that relies on microtransactions heavily. It’s intended to target the China marketplace. Developed by Activision Shanghai, and Raven Software. The game is being distributed, marketed, published and maintained online through Tencent, known in China as one of the largest internet service portal for that region.

A little backstory; Eric Hirshberg, the C.E.O of Activision Publishing talked about opportunities for microtransactions in an investor call. Ever since, Activision has been taking a beating over the comment because the rabid fanbase thinks that Activision is turning Call of Duty into a cash cow. Call of Duty Elite came into fruition, but nothing about Call of Duty Elite was all about microtransaction. So, today, Activision announced Call of Duty Online and it’s possible that people are now going like “Okay, I see now.”

As such, Activision released a trailer to accompany this announcement…

As you can see, Call of Duty Online features the following maps:

Storm (MW2)
Wet Work (CoD4)
Favela (MW2)
Shipment (CoD4)
Bloc (CoD4)
Afghan (MW2)
Underpass (MW2)
Kill House (CoD4)

There are no indications that Black Ops or Modern Warfare 3 maps will be included in this mix of maps revealed thus far.

Activision released their feelings about this collaboration out to the press…

“We are very excited about our relationship with Tencent and the opportunities for gaming in China,” stated Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision. “We think China is one of the most exciting places in the world for us to grow our business and to develop innovative new games.”

Kotick added, “Tencent is an ideal partner for Activision to bring Call of Duty Online to China. Tencent has a terrific track record of customer-focused innovation and deep market knowledge that will be invaluable to Activision as we build great games for China. We have worked closely with Tencent to create a game with broad appeal for the Chinese market. We look forward to laying the foundation for a long-standing relationship with Tencent and to launching a new and unique experience for fans.”

Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said, “We are thrilled to work with the world’s premiere game developer and publisher to bring this much-awaited title to Chinese game players. We believe Call of Duty Online will attract tens of millions of loyal fans in China, and our game platform and operational expertise to run massive multi-player online games can provide strong support to deliver the immersive and highly interactive game experience to game players in China.”

There is no release date set for Call of Duty Online, other than that it will primarily be a PC title. There are also no indications of whether the game will see light of day outside the China marketplace.