Call of Duty MP is free — now and forever

For the last several months, there have been rumors that Activision is going to charge people to play the multiplayer component of Call of Duty. These rumors are false. This page has become a historical archive the rumors’ origins as well as Activision’s official statements on the matter. But I’ll give you a hint: They keep saying the same thing…

POSTED 7/19/10: There’s a video that made the rounds today of a 360 player getting a glitchy, incomplete message that uses the phrase “Modern Warfare 2″ and half of the word “membership.” Uh oh — does this mean Activision will start charging for COD multiplayer? No, it does not.

This video shows just a glitch — since you can access a Live subscription renewal from within the MW2 game interface, it appears some data got jammed between two parts of Live. It’s not a secret portal to some nefarious plot to charge people for COD multiplayer — and there are no plans to do that. As I was poking around for some answers, Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling addressed it on Twitter:

Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they.

UPDATE 7/19/10: Robert has also added a blog post on the topic where he confirms that no subscription plan for MW2 exists nor is one being planned.

UPDATE 7/19/10: To me, that was pretty clear that we’re talking about COD as a whole. But just in case you are worried that this only covers MW2, Treyarch’s Josh Olin has added a bit more clarity for the upcoming COD: Black Ops:

No, you will not have to ‘Pay to Play’ #CODBlackOps Multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed.

UPDATE 7/19/10: Activision has given IGN an official statement as well:

Reports of a subscription membership in Modern Warfare 2 are not true. Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer.

Obviously, if you are playing on Xbox 360, you will need to pay for your Xbox Live Gold subscription as you currently do. But there will be no additional fees to play MW2 or Black Ops.

People often assume the worst, so thanks to all the people who asked if this was real or not before they reacted. There are often logical answers to those kind of questions.

UPDATE 11/24/10: Amazingly, months after its July appearance, this rumor remains in November, so Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg addressed it yet again in a recent interview with Industry Gamers:

Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no. The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience and we’ll never charge for that. It’s not going to be something we’ll attempt to monetize; it’s part of the package.

All I’m trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer.

UPDATE 2/12/11: Happy new year! This rumor persists so I am bumping it up on the blog. The Q4 2010 earnings call announcement of a studio called Beachhead has fanned the flames yet again, but the data in this document stands. Everything everybody said last year is still true: you will not have to pay to play COD multiplayer. Even the game announced for the Chinese market is a free-to-play model supported by microtransactions. Please, tell your friends — the fact that the rumor mill keeps churning this one up despite direct statements from the people who actually would be able to make those decisions…it’s downright ridiculous at this point.

UPDATE 5/10/11: I am stunned that the rumor is making the rounds again, so I’m updating this story with the latest reiteration of the same thing that has been the truth since the beginning. In the Q1 2011 earnings call held yesterday, while answering a follow-up question about Beachhead Studios’ project, Eric clarified this one more time for good measure:

While we are attempting to deliver new, incremental experiences [...] we are not attempting to monetize or take any experience away that currently comes as part of the value proposition of buying the game.

UPDATE 5/31/11: We now have details about Beachhead’s project, and it’s called Call of Duty: Elite. Both COD multiplayer and COD Elite are free — so not only is Activision not charging you for multiplayer, but you’re going to get more stuff for free. Elite will offer an optional premium membership for some of its services, but it does not take anything away from multiplayer, nor does it unbalance MP gameplay. You can get more info at callofduty.com/elite.

If you really, really want to pay for the multiplayer experience on its own — if what you have paid is simply too good a deal and you feel deeply obligated to fork over more cash — then pick a dollar amount that seems fair and please donate that to the Call of Duty Endowment. Then you can enjoy the value-packed multiplayer experience guilt-free.

I dream of a day this rumor goes away. I’m starting to think that people would rather be angry about something that does not exist than they would be happy about getting what they expect for their money…!