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Pachter Wants You To Pay For Multiplayer In Call Of Duty
Analysts aren't right all the time. After predicting a paid subscription for multiplayer in Call of Duty, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter is condemning Activision's failure to monetize the series' popular online modes as a "betrayal of shareholder trust."
The comment comes after the CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg, plainly denied the possibility of ever charging for Call of Duty's multiplayer component. Speaking about Pachter's prediction, Hirshberg said: "He's probably looking at meta-trends in the world and in culture about online services and new ways things should be monetized from Netflix to cloud-based computing. ...But at the end of the day, all I'm trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer."
It should be noted that Eric Hirshberg is the CEO of Activision Publishing, not Activision. That's Bobby Kotick, and he definitely wants to charge you for multiplayer.
In a research note, Pachter mentions Activision's refusal to charge for multiplayer: "Considering that each of the publicly traded publishers exists to maximise shareholder value, we view their reticence to monetise multiplayer as a betrayal of shareholder trust, and can only hope that each implements plans to address the impact of increasing free multiplayer going forward."
Of course, Pachter's job is to look out for stockholders, not for gamers. Even so, if your comments are making Activision look like the good guy, you might want to take it down a notch.
[Source: CVG]
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