Ok, so my exclamation point in the title is totally sarcastic, I’m sorry. It’s been rumored coming for a long time, and now it’s been unveiled. The monthly subscription will give you access to extra content like map packs, as well as opening up social features, kind of like a CoD Facebook where you can post gameplay videos and track stats with your friends. The WSJ oddly got the exclusive for the story which tells me that this is more about Activision showing off to investors than gamers. WSJ is guessing that it’ll be somewhere around an $8 per month fee on top of the $60 price tag of each installment of CoD.
What worries me is the precedent this sets for other high profile games. It was right around the time Modern Warfare 2 came out that we started seeing the $60 MSRP for PC versions of games (up $10 from the traditional $50), so is this the start of a “PlayStation Plus” type model coming to big budget titles or just a one off money grab by Activision, wringing every last dollar out of over-eager fans? Either way, the CoD series has been way over done for me, so I’ll be sitting out the next installments of the franchise along with any additional subscriptions.