Call of Duty: Online deploying in China
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Activision and Tencent ink multiyear agreement to bring free-to-play shooter based on Modern Warfare series to Asian country after two years of development.
Activision and Chinese Internet service provider Tencent today announced Call of Duty: Online, a new PC free-to-play first-person shooter set for release in mainland China. According to Activision, the game will be based on Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare universe and has been in development for almost two years.
As part of the multiyear agreement, Tencent will have the exclusive license to operate Call of Duty: Online in China. The free-to-play game will be monetized through the sale of in-game items like weapons, gear, and perks "built specifically for the Chinese market."
As for the game itself, Call of Duty: Online features an original story told through a string of special operations missions based on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The game's first trailer is available below.
Tencent, which recently acquired a minority stake in Gears of War studio Epic Games, believes Call of Duty: Online has the potential to attract "tens of millions" of gamers, according to president Martin Lau.
Activision first spoke of a free-to-play, microtransaction-based Call of Duty game for China in May 2011 during a financial call.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
94 comments
i wonder how is to do something like this?and from what is see and heard cod is still F-t-P game(only for hackers)...
at least their not trying to turn it into a mmo, saw online nd went o no. their is no sub to play cod so the only differences is the payment model, hardly warrens a new off shoot title.
Because they made it! China has ten times better internet than we do at a fraction of the price!
Why do the asians always get the stuff for free? Hell, I paid 50$ for that.
But whatever, since it's going to be a free fps, it's likely to suck anyway. Just take a look at the weird dubstep-trailer and the always popular 'online' suffix. Those give a clear enough indication of the quality of the game in my opinion (besides, since when was the original Call Of Duty not online?). Those sort of games are all the same. Glitchy, buggy, lobby based, microtransaction-based, containing overreactive 'kill' and 'hit' messages and full of idiots on cafeine. The same thing was done with a Counter-Strike spin-off and there are thousands of other games like that (Soldier Front, Wolf Team, A.V.A., Combat Arms). But, maybe it just isn't my sort of thing and perhaps I am being a snooty western imperialist.
I'd say they should try something new to stand out between the overdose of this sort of free FPS spin-offs there in China, but apparently it works good enough.
Glad more people can enjoy their games. Hope they don't waste their hard earned money on it tho.
@jorge69696 It's gonna flop, Cod is God here but in Asia, take their competition and multiply that x20
This comment has been deleted
I am not trying to start anything or get anybody riled up. I just wrote what I thought when I saw the article. I was rantin' a little bit and should have toned it down a bit.
haha what a joke. The quality of the video is about as good as the graphics the game is gonna get.
And hopefully it gets totally hacked to hell like they did for everyone else! I don't want the Chinese missing out on the whole CoD experience.
so a game americans have been paying out their ass for since 2007 is now going to be free to play in china.... wth.
8 Like This won't work, 12 year olds in china dont have time to play CoD, they're too busy trying to become a successful businessman or something
5 Like GL, as if that market isn't saturated enough as it is. F2P FPS is BIIIIGGGG in Asia, it's like throwing a pack of mice into a hawk nest.
we have alot of FPS games that are F2P here in asia...and i think thats what activision is planning to hit...how do they make money???well mostly on P2W concepts like buying stat+ equips and customizations...
2 Like "Tencent, which recently acquired a minority stake in Gears of War studio Epic Games, believes Call of Duty: Online has the potential to attract "tens of millions" of gamers, according to president Martin Lau."
It will only be possible if they make the game international! Fail Tencent, fail....
Add Tencent to the pile of developers working on Call of Duty games. Call of Duty Online looks like it's reusing a lot of assets from the first two Modern Warfare games, so it's not a big deal if it doesn't come to the U.S.
With so many COD coming out in a short amount of time. Am I the only one who thinks COD should have its own genre ? First COD FPS, then RPG, TPS, fighter and now a pay to win browser game. You may laugh now but COD will soon go to other genres.
1 Like @firehawk998 I'd love seeing Call of Duty go to other genres. That action adventure idea they mentioned would be nice.
6 Like "You may laugh now, but COD will soon go to other genres."
SUPER CALL OF DUTY KART.
OH GOD.
Cool so not only are they gonna release the same game they always have for the last 10 years, they are gonna make it even more unbalanced for those without money to buy the "killstreak plane that destroys everything for you" seriously guys stop buying these games and play bf3 or cs they cost less and they don't charge for an updated game yearly.
5 Like @IevildirkI No, this is a separate game from the regular CoD releases, specifically targeted for an untapped market. No where does it say that microtransactions will be coming to CoD proper. Seriously. How hard is it to read five paragraphs?
5 Like At first I was like F2P and Activison don't mix and then I saw "microtransaction-based Call of Duty", the natural order of the world has been restored!
1 Like Where better to deploy a Micro-transaction based game, than into the country that is pressured into rationing their internet time, and thus will obviously pay if need be?
Activision, may not be the most loved company, but damn have I got to hand it to them for knowing business.
@Mozuckint Has nothing to do with rationing internet time, they're doing this because micro-transaction based FPS is VERY VERY VERY popular in Asia, Nexon got filthy rich off Combat Arms, IjjI wants a peice of the pie with A.V.A. don't like? Let's play some Soldier Front or War Rock. I want some hardcore so lets play Blackshot. Want wacky? Play crazy shooter online. Animals vs Humans with guns infection style? Wolfteam is for you.
The list finishes in hundreds, a large tumor of Korean developers trying to muscle out each other after the success of Counter Strike. I'm not going to pull some wacky statistics baselessly but if i had to guess, 1/3rd of teens between the ages of 13-23 play some form of free to play MMO FPS, RPG or fighting game In those countries which is why the government wants to ration internet time, it's an epidemic.
Activision being the greed hunters that they are, its only natural they want a slice of the bread.
4 Like @vivalatour you obviously didn't make it if you had time to post your comment then!
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