Photo: Activision

Famed video games soothsayer Michael Pachter believes that a Call of Duty subscription service is inevitable, if not imminent, and he believes that up to 5 million gamers will sign up for the service. Cue the Call of Duty MMO calls again.

Soft software sales a concern

NPD numbers for June showed software sales declining 15 per cent over sales during the same period last year. This marked more than three consecutive months in 2010 where less software was sold than in the prior year, prompting analysts and executives at gaming companies to rethink their sales strategies.

Call of Duty subscription a necessity

Michael Pachter, the famous Wedbush Morgan gaming analyst, puts these depressed sales figures down to multiplayer games, which lead to people buying fewer games because they keep playing the same one.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

He believes this reality should force Activision Blizzard to release Call of Duty with an add-on subscription service. In an advisor’s note, he says: ‘We estimate that a total of 12 million consumers are playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for an average of 10 hours per week on the two platforms’ respective networks’, [Xbox Live and PSN] and that this ‘has sucked the available time away from what otherwise would be spent playing newly purchased games’. Pachter then added that they (Wedbush Morgan) think this is a bad thing, and that publishers must figure out a way to recapture revenue from these lost players.

Michael Pachter adds that, ‘We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game [Call of Duty], to take the first step to address monetization of multiplayer (gaming)’. He has a point, considering the runaway success the company has with World of WarCraft.

While he readily admits he’s not sure how Activision would go about this, it is clear that the folks at Activision Blizzard are thinking about the problem, too. We’ve wondered if a Call of Duty MMO was on the cards previously, too, considering others rake in the money from Call of Duty online play.

We’ll see.