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Activision directly responsible for $10 XBL price hike?

H

Hot Coldman

Banned
TheOddOne said:
''You want the next COD on the Xbox, Mattrick? Then fucking pay me.''
Click to expand...

If MS has any balls whatsoever they'd go "Oh whatchagannado? Go PS3/PC exclusive? LOLOLOL. Give us fucking COD assholes"
 
W

WinFonda

Member
Wow, that's crazy. I was wondering exactly what Activision's incentive was for releasing Call of Duty DLC first on 360. That was quite a clever tit for tat on their part. Makes sense now. And they actually have an interest in driving XBL usage overall.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
Green Scar said:
If MS has any balls whatsoever they'd go "Oh whatchagannado? Go PS3/PC exclusive? LOLOLOL. Give us fucking COD assholes"
Click to expand...
I think people would have just bought a PS3 or went the PC route.

Whats funny is that a Ex-EA head is now bowing down to Activision.
 
C

Cosmo Clock 21

Banned
jorma said:
All it should take is one question from a journalist.
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M$ could easily sidestep the question with something like "we're using the $10 price hike to account for inflation and provide our customers with a better XBL experience", and given the current state of gaming journalism I seriously doubt mainstream press is going to delve too deeply into the situation.
 
S

SmokyDave

Member
Jexhius said:
Kotick is a genius. If this is true, they even gone farther then the old EA ever did in pissing off gamers.
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Assuming this is true, 95% of XBL subscribers will never hear about it, or understand it, much less get pissed off. Hell, if you told most of 'em that the extra charge was specifically for CoD, they'd probably be fine with it.
 
E

elektrixx

Banned
Cosmo Clock 21 said:
M$ could easily sidestep the question with something like "we're using the $10 price hike to account for inflation and provide our customers with a better XBL experience", and given the current state of gaming journalism I seriously doubt mainstream press is going to delve too deeply into the situation.
Click to expand...
I don't reckon there would be anywhere to dig anyway. Anyone with info on either side would be high up and keep it to themselves.
 
Jex

Jex

Member
SmokyDave said:
Assuming this is true, 95% of XBL subscribers will never hear about it, or understand it, much less get pissed off. Hell, if you told most of 'em that the extra charge was specifically for CoD, they'd probably be fine with it.
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The people who don't get annoyed at this kind of thing wouldn't care about old EA or the new Activision, or even know which companies make their games.

My undeclared proposition when writing on GAF is generally "gamers=core gamers who keep up the business end of gaming". I don't think that's a crazy thing to assume.
 
J

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Class_A_Ninja said:
Looks like some solid evidence via quotes. You don't just go from getting no money to getting some money without some shenanigans behind the scenes.

The price hike is obviously related. What sense does it make for MS to be selling live at fairly reduced rate before they hike up the price to $60? "Lock in your price now"...before we aren't getting all the money you spend in November.

It is a giant middle finger to anyone who subscribes to Live and doesn't play COD games. People who own (and maintain) an Xbox solely to play Halo now have to pay a COD fee.
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It's not solid evidence. It's very likely it happened, but Cosmo Clock is correct in saying there's no solid piece of evidence directly correlating the price hike to Activision now getting a cut.
 
S

Sean

Banned
johnFkennedy said:
I think you underestimate the number of journalists that browse this forum. This has the potential to be a huge controversy and if it becomes one then Activision is bound to release a statement.
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Activision will say they don't comment on business matters, Microsoft will just give some generic canned response about how they're continually improving the service.

They're partners now, neither of them is going to point any blame. We will never have any official confirmation on this but reading between the lines it's pretty clear what happened IMO.
 
W

Walshicus

Member
Before:
gluiv.jpg



After:
J4W3f.png


?



Also, this is exceedingly annoying. I hope we get some facts here soon to beat Kotick up over. That said, COD can go fuck itself for all I care.
 
Majima Everywhere System

Majima Everywhere System

Member
Jocchan said:
It's not solid evidence. It's very likely it happened, but Cosmo Clock is correct in saying there's no solid piece of evidence directly correlating the price hike to Activision now getting a cut.
Click to expand...

No smoking gun indeed, but I expected to see only conspiracy theories when I clicked on this thread. It seemed a little early in the morning, and I didn't expect the "leads" that were in the original post. It fits a lot better than I was expecting it to.

"I want to believe". I'm already pissed at Activision for COD BLOPS PC. I'm interested in hating the company more than ever. Poor Bizarre as well.
 
G

Gram Negative Cocci

Member
So, Microsoft is so concerned with crushing their competitors they passed on a price increase to all their Live customers. Just to appease Activision and have exclusive dlc time windows.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
 
A

Axiom

Member
I want this to be a lie.


I've never played a modern or WW2 FPS in my life on the 360 and I'd be no fan of my subscription fee subsidising a product I never use, and a company I've no love for.

Meanwhile PSN is busy playing catch up, but giving me stuff I never use every month. I much prefer the latter method.

I really wish the OP didn't make so much sense and was filled with some kind of trolling, I could go about my business.

Nice work OP.
 
D

Dead Man

Member
The people that should be pissed are the nonCOD playing Xbox crowd. They are now subsidising other gamers. Awesome.
 
Z

Zenith

Banned
johnFkennedy said:
I think you underestimate the number of journalists that browse this forum. This has the potential to be a huge controversy and if it becomes one then Activision is bound to release a statement.
Click to expand...

I think you're confusing shills with journalists. Even if someone asked Activision could just reply with some confusing response filled with business-speak that doesn't actually say anything.
 
B

Branduil

Member
I think Microsoft deserves the lion's share of the blame here. No one forced them to capitulate to Activision on this.
 
E

Empty

Member
nice work op. hope someone with access follows through and gets to the bottom of it, not holding out much hope though.
 
T

Turrican3

Member
Nuclear Muffin said:
I just read this Kotick interview here - released on November 12th that brings this theory to light...

November 12 2010
[...]
So Activision are now receiving a portion of the XBL fees.
Click to expand...
Is this interview available online?
I see no link posted. :-(
 
P

Prine

Banned
I hate the COD franchise, this is very disappointing if true. I go out of my way not to contribute to that POS series.
 
TwiztidElf

TwiztidElf

Member
I feel sick. This is the first time I've seriously considered severing my XBL account. If this is proven to be true, I will do it.

dose said:
Surely other publishers will be pissed at this news too? They'll all be demanding a cut of the pie.
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So this. EA gets a cut or Madden/FIFA PS3 exclusive?
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Green Scar said:
VERY glad I got a PS3 now :lol
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This. If you think ATVI is responsible for the price-hike, what does that say about their PS3 communities?
 
MMaRsu

MMaRsu

Banned
Can we get some more information/confirmation on this? This shit makes me sick.

Let's harass MS/Activision about this shit.
 
T

teruterubozu

Member
MMaRsu said:
Can we get some more information/confirmation on this? This shit makes me sick.

Let's harass MS/Activision about this shit.
Click to expand...

NO way can this ever be confirmed. Microsoft can point to a whole host of reasons (Kinect, Hulu, Netflix, etc., etc.). Analysts have already made this reason when the price hike was first announced:

“When taking into consideration the numerous services added to Xbox Live Gold subscribers over the last eight years, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would eventually increase the price of a Gold subscription by a moderate amount,” Divnich said. "When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers”

We can still be mad though, if it makes us feel better.
 
H

hamchan

Member
Yep, I was thinking something similar when the price got hiked. Kotick isn't wrong either, Xbox Live's popularity owes a lot to CoD, so it's not surprising if Activision was getting some of that money.
 
E

Evil Benius

Member
While I would not be surprised if this is true, we are also not getting all of the facts just based on these quotes. If there is a deal in place it easily could be more complicated than we are making it out to be. For instance they could have looked at the number of people who played MW2 online and worked some math from there. The deal could then be looked at annually based on how many people are playing the latest COD.

Also this is no different than what MS did before by buying timed exclusives, it is all their money in the end. The only difference is now a direct line is being drawn from money gained from Live subscriptions to money going in to Activision's pockets. People saying they will cancel their subscriptions over this need to realize some of the money they have been paying Microsoft over the years has already been going to Activision for timed exclusives etc.
 
MMaRsu

MMaRsu

Banned
teruterubozu said:
NO way can this ever be confirmed. Microsoft can point to a whole host of reasons (Kinect, Hulu, Netflix, etc., etc.). Analysts have already made this reason when the price hike was first announced:

“When taking into consideration the numerous services added to Xbox Live Gold subscribers over the last eight years, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would eventually increase the price of a Gold subscription by a moderate amount,” Divnich said. "When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers”

We can still be mad though, if it makes us feel better.
Click to expand...

Kinda funny these services aren't even available for me.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
spiderman123 said:
Jesus Christ Activision. Why do I buy their games for fucks sakes.
Click to expand...

Even if you didn't, you might be paying for them anyway.

This would explain why Microsoft did the dumbest thing they could possibly do in response to PlayStation Plus, raise their Live prices. Instead of their far more matured $50 service going against a very new, unproven $50 service, suddenly they were the premium cost online service again for consoles, and any deficiencies in the Plus service could be accredited to the $10-per-year difference. But if Activision was playing hardball, they may not have had a choice. Ugly.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
I came in honestly to see what you had, got more cynical after the first paragraph... having read what you presented I genuinely think you might be on to something here...
 
V

Valkyr Junkie

Member
I assumed this would be the case as soon as Activision came out and said they felt COD directly was responsible for a majority of XBL Gold subscriptions. If they believed that, there's no way they wouldn't do everything in their power to get a piece of the pie.
 
P

Pai Pai Master

Banned
It makes quite a bit of sense. What better way to pay for exclusive content that's meant to get them more sales in the first place, than jack up the price of their subscription fees and make even more money?

Microsoft's all about "adding more value" to Xbox Live, but the costs of those operations are probably next to nothing compared to a $10 price hike across the board. Imagine if Blizzard started charging just $10 more per year for WoW?
 
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