Activision Execs Argue Over CoD Beachhead

Kotick vs Hirshberg

Posted by Staff
Following the release of a slew of figures for its most recent financial quarter Activision/Blizzard's top knobs have been taking questions from analysts in the usual post- release love-fest. Aside from the 'going forwards' and 'creating synergies' was some news of Call of Duty: Beachead. And also an apparent difference of opinion between Activision Blizzard CEO and Activision Publishing CEO.

Brian Karimzad of Goldman Sachs Group asked Bobby Kotick an - as usual English language murdering - question, part of which was:

"I don't want to steal any thunder from announcements over the next few weeks but is it out of the realm of possibility for some of the Beachhead features to be part of this fall's release?

He then followed up, "you guys have mentioned that you're going to have a new level of connectivity with Call of Duty this fall, the initiatives there, is it out of the realm of possibility that the Beachhead initiatives will be part of that this fall?"

Bobby responded, "The Beachhead initiatives will be part of that this fall. It'll be an integral part to the innovation signature nature of the Call of Duty game that we're releasing this year...

"The answer is yes. And I just wanted to backup on the earlier question make sure that I underscore that while we are attempting to deliver new incremental experiences that have yet heretofore been unseen by our players, we are not attempting to monetize or take any experience away that currently comes as part of the value proposition of buying the game.

"I think, very importantly, our community of Call of Duty players is one that we celebrate and you will see a lot of new services and capabilities that will be provided free of charge to all of our customers."

There seems to be a slight misunderstanding at Activision on the monetizing question though. Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg responds later:

"Well, we haven't yet released the details of the business model of Beachhead. You'll certainly see that, that is a response to the patterns that you're talking about. The passion that people have for the game, the amount of time they're willing to engage with one another in a connected way.

"Our goal has been to create an experience that was amplifying enough and energizing enough and igniting enough to that community to be able to be monetized."

Our italics.

Source: SeekingAlpha
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Comments

jacob andersen 10 May 2011 09:05
1/5
is COD Beachhead an MMO for COD?
is COD becoming an MMO?
will it be free to play?
Pud(NZ) 10 May 2011 11:22
2/5
@jacob_andersen it will be free to play on line source but in saying that it will be milked mappacks extra weapons slots weapons exclusive to subscribing gamers eventually it will be an mmo this is the beginning of the end of COD for me.

kiss good buy dedicated servers small maps and p2p hosting for all,lagging strat tracking and buggy cod servers and a broken steam knock off.

Oh this november is going to be hell for COD fanboys as a gun is held to there head and 4 studios patch not only the game but beachhead interface and then charge for functionality that will ultimately a very unbalanced game with the rich getting the cool stuff and possible advantage.

Great Job Bobby!
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Pud(nz) 10 May 2011 11:24
3/5
it will be free to play on line source @oneofswords but in saying that it will be milked mappacks extra weapons slots weapons exclusive to subscribing gamers eventually it will be an mmo this is the beginning of the end of COD for me.

kiss good buy dedicated servers small maps and p2p hosting for all,lagging strat tracking and buggy cod servers and a broken steam knock off.

Oh this november is going to be hell for COD fanboys as a gun is held to there head and 4 studios patch not only the game but beachhead interface and then charge for functionality that will ultimately a very unbalanced game with the rich getting the cool stuff and possible advantage.

Great Job Bobby!
Battlefield 10 May 2011 12:07
4/5
Well if CoD does release on the same days as BF3 then I know what gme i will be playing.
Joe Mac 10 May 2011 15:35
5/5
'Only the rich?' Oh puh-leeezz. I can afford a TV, an xbox360, games at £40 a throw and access to XBL but I can't afford online content because I'm 'poor'.

Perhaps we can criticise the idea that those who pay more can get an advantage over those who don't but I do get heartily sick of people pleading poverty who own all these consumer items!
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