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Call of Duty Online Announced…in China?

Written by Kenny Rioux

Call of Duty is still a thing. A very BIG thing. or as one Penn Jillette would call it a BFD (listen to his podcast, Penn’s Sunday School to figure out what it means!). Apparently Bobby Kotick seems to also agree that COD is a BFD. So much so, that he was in Shanghai to announce that Activision Blizzard were going to team up with Tencent -one of the biggest online entities in China- to bring Call of Duty Online. What makes this interesting is that A: It is only going to be available in China, and B: It will be free to play, with revenue being generated from in-game item purchases. Here is what the Devil man had said about striking this partnership.

Tencent is an ideal CA$H COW 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.”

If you want to see the video of Kotick’s announcing the deal (and his lobotomy induced “speech”) click here.

A personal note. Do not be surprised if this takes off, and if that happens, do not be surprised if it comes over here to the west. China is the perfect testing ground for something like this, especially with the sheer glut of internet cafes that dominate Asia. Although it may be possible that seeing as the FTP business model is rather hit or miss over here, a subscription based COD Online is also something Activision may be looking at.

About the author

Kenny Rioux

5 Comments

  • I can only imagine this is Activision trying to keep the COD name alive without running the risk of having to invest in pumping out money for a full fledged $60 dollar game. Make no mistake, these guys and gals are trying to learn from their past errors of running properties into the ground (some would say they already did with COD) and the multiplayer would work very well in this online space. The question they are going to face is how can they keep it fresh a year or two from now?

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