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Call of Duty: Black Ops II |OT| Black to the Future

Victrix

*beard*
Activision likes money. Can you confidently say that somehow they'd make more by making map packs free? Somehow I doubt that if they only charged for cosmetic items, or whatever most F2P games do, they'd make more money.

Easily, I listed six games that are doing exactly that.

And if you think F2P games aren't making money... let's just say that's exceedingly inaccurate.

And I forgot GW2, another ideal example of that model, but there are many others. High quality core content, continuous updates, and a healthy market mean both good revenue and the ability to push updates to the larger non playing populace, who keep the overall population level and interest in the game high.

World of Tanks is also particularly noticable, that game is insanely big, but it hasn't picked up a ton of traction in the west yet. That MWO is copying so much of what it did directly is a testament to how well it is working.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...monthly-profits-hitting-double-digit-millions
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-11-wargaming-net-revenue-will-triple-within-a-year

Oh and Firefall. Hell, there's tons out there. Many of Nexon's games function on that same sort of economy.

But the more directly comparable FPS or action oriented games are also doing either well or extremely well, depending on the particular game. I seriously doubt if there will be significant barriers in the way of such payment structures on the next gen consoles, and we already have games with hilariously awful DLC schemes that far outprice the base game - the better F2P games have much better ideas for how to handle that.
 

Spookie

Member
It seems there's less guns than blops?

Maybe they are making them feel unique this time?


Haha no I couldn't keep a straight face either. :D

Activision likes money. Can you confidently say that they'd make more by making map packs free? Somehow I doubt that if they only charged for cosmetic items, or whatever most F2P games do, they'd make more money.

Quite sure Dota 2, LoL and WoT are swimming in lakes of liquid cash.
 

Victrix

*beard*
Do they make more money than Activision is currently making on CoD though?

The last listed numbers I saw for the map packs was ~20m sales, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300m. If those WoT numbers are even remotely higher than 10m monthly (likely, given their rate of growth and the way they phrased it), they're making that in a year.

And god only knows how much money LoL et al are making, that game took off like a rocket.

Anyway, bottom line: the business model works, and works well, and for my part, as a consumer and a gamer, I'd much rather be playing regularly updated cod with shitloads of new free maps and content than the current cod we have with fragmented map packs that make it a royal pain in the ass to get a game on the maps you paid for with your friends who didn't all get every map pack.
 
Quite sure Dota 2, LoL and WoT are swimming in lakes of liquid cash.
Those games make more than CoD? Did not know. Well the other issues may be getting MS and Sony to play ball with that kind of pricing structure, whether console players are willing to pay for that kind of stuff, and the overall question of whether abandoning a proven strategy is a good idea.
 

Victrix

*beard*
Those games make more than CoD? Did not know. Well the other issues may be getting MS and Sony to play ball with that kind of pricing structure, whether console players are willing to pay for that kind of stuff, and the overall question of whether abandoning a proven strategy is a good idea.

They're already trying to get on that gravy train - that's exactly what Elite is/was. They want some way to get regularly occuring income, and unbounded income (ie, a market where players can spend as much as they want) is even better.

The infamous 'paying for bullets' comment from ATVI isn't far off the mark (you can literally do that in WoT).

Which sounds gruesome, but the reality (in the better games) is actually quite good. You can download and play an awesome game for free, and if you pay up, you progress more quickly. The best games give exceedingly minimal (or no) ingame advantages, because they understand that corrupting the gameplay would be damage the reach of the game.
 

DarFrey

Neo Member
Couldn't agree more. I play with a group of 5 other guys. 3 of them preordered, 2 didn't. My friend who is related to the 2 who didn't said that they planned on getting it a couple of weeks after release. I told him to tell them to get their asses to gamestop (or SOMEwhere), and preorder, because I didn't know how the party system would work if 2 people didn't have the map.

Real pain in the ass.
It will work the same way it has always worked. They will disable the map for the entire party, but you'll still be able to play together. The Christmas noobs won't have the Nuketown map either, so you're probably better off without it. :)

I'm sure they will release it to everyone eventually.
 

noomi

Member
I'm mostly interested in Zombies, I just can't get enough.

Can anyone say how many maps are included in this mode? I know that tranzit is the huge world you roam around in. But more specifically, how many standalone zombie maps are there (not including the nuketown 2025 zombie pre-order special map).

I heard someone mention 3 maps, but are these just 3 maps ripped out of tranzit? or are they actually 3 separate maps all together, so confused!

Also, would love to have all the zombie maps from black ops and world at war at some point (yeah...DLC.....)
 

Spookie

Member
Those games make more than CoD? Did not know. Well the other issues may be getting MS and Sony to play ball with that kind of pricing structure, whether console players are willing to pay for that kind of stuff, and the overall question of whether abandoning a proven strategy is a good idea.

No need for retail, less money in marketing (why do you need to market your game when people can just straight up download and play it), no logistics (well servers maybe?) and cash from your shop goes directly to you.

It's easy to see why it's a success but it doesn't work in Activisions favour they like to put out new games each yeah but this requires you support the one game, for a very long time.
 

dokish

Banned
Lightweight + Dead Silence... My body is ready.

I don't like PC gaming (all my CODS have been on 360), but this time I may get the PC version.

* Only now I saw that this game doesn't have kill streaks... OH MY, that's too good to be true! FINALLY! This was the main reason that drove me away from COD.
 

drkOne

Member
Community has grown up, I think.
I'm sorry, but this is not valid. No community will never grow up of overpowered weapons.
Maybe you're playing on servers that force rules, but otherwise it just doesn't happen.

Server list is also backwards from having a list of game modes and a lobby between maps.
Going back to Blops and having to pick servers from a list, ugh.

And this game also has dedicated servers, so best of both worlds.

Those games make more than CoD?
Of course they don't. If the most profitable F2P made more money than the most profitable game that has yearly releases, not to mention DLC, F2P wouldn't be the minority.
 

Spookie

Member
I don't like PC gaming (all my CODS have been on 360), but this time I may get the PC version.

If you're playing it with a pad you're probably better off on a console. CoD tends to be a point and click affair on the PC with guns having little to no recoil it tends to be a who sees whom first wins situation. If you're using a pad, even with auto aim, you're going to have a more difficult time.

Server list is also backwards from having a list of game modes and a lobby between maps.
Going back to Blops and having to pick servers from a list, ugh.

And this game also has dedicated servers, so best of both worlds.


Of course they don't. If the most profitable F2P made more money than the most profitable game that has yearly releases, not to mention DLC, F2P wouldn't be the minority.

BF3 had the best of both worlds, you could queue up in a lobby with friends using quick find or the server browser if you wanted a 24/7 map rotation. If anything this is a compromise. Also F2P are most certainly not in a minority. LoL recently put out an infographic putting it 8 million behind XBL (on monthly users) and having 9 million more players than MW3 (3.3mil) a day. Though I loathe the game- they are impressive figures.
 
1080p link to the Original PS3 Bots footage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj4PdzbLgBg

Is this HD? Seems noticeably crappy looking compared to the 360 version. Unfortunately my friends and siblings are getting it on PS3 so I will stick with that version.

Also from those 360 streak videos above, I didn't know kills you get from streak awards give you points again. At least the points you get are dramatically reduced. Also cool in that PS3 Demolition video is you get a bonus for defending.
 

PandaL

Member
Is this HD? Seems noticeably crappy looking compared to the 360 version. Unfortunately my friends and siblings are getting it on PS3 so I will stick with that version.

Also from those 360 streak videos above, I didn't know kills you get from streak awards give you points again. At least the points you get are dramatically reduced. Also cool in that PS3 Demolition video is you get a bonus for defending.

I'm not sure if that's a real HD video or not. I searched for PS3 videos and its the only one that I found. FYI I'm also buying the PS3 version.

Yes, in BO2, you get points towards your kill streak for playing the objective. :)
 

Raptor

Member
Checking the Trophies and there is one called:

Back in Time: Use a future weapon in the past

Thats amazing!!

It has to do with the Custom Loadout in campaign, yay!!
 
When they say everything is unlocked in Private Games, does that even include prestige weapon skins and stuff like that?

Checking the Trophies and there is one called:

Back in Time: Use a future weapon in the past

Thats amazing!!

It has to do with the Custom Loadout in campaign, yay!!
Did we determine if that's for every mission or only for some? It does sound really promising though! Should add a lot of replay value, as long as the campaign is enjoyable.
 

Sojgat

Member
It's really going to blow my mind when the Black Ops 2 campaign turns out to be more experimental than Halo 4's.
 
With the Nuketown map, is it only available at certain places? I preordered mine at the Microsoft store and don't want to miss out on any free ish.
 
It's really going to blow my mind when the Black Ops 2 campaign turns out to be more experimental than Halo 4's.
Yeah really.

-custom loadouts
-strike force (sandbox) missions
-branching paths through levels
-branching narratives

Treyarch rocks.

With the Nuketown map, is it only available at certain places? I preordered mine at the Microsoft store and don't want to miss out on any free ish.
People are saying all launch copies will have it. I wouldn't worry.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Lightweight + Dead Silence... My body is ready.

I don't like PC gaming (all my CODS have been on 360), but this time I may get the PC version.

* Only now I saw that this game doesn't have kill streaks... OH MY, that's too good to be true! FINALLY! This was the main reason that drove me away from COD.
They're point streaks now.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
80 is a good bump up from 65 at least. Mw3 looked a bit funny at 90, 85 was damn near perfect.

I'm impressed they made the effort to see how it might break SP though.
 

Halcyon

Member
Went and paid off my preorder for PS3 a bit ago. This is my first COD that I have purchased and I'm really looking forward to it.

I however have no ps3 friends so if anybody wants to add me for some bad team deathmatch or incompetent zombies games


Psn ID: HalcyonTB12
 

Frostburn

Member
Great OT post! Reading has me very hyped for this on PC after the disaster that was MW3 on PC. Hacked lobby the first week of online had 2 friends and I at such a crazy negative score (After killing one person or two people each) that we couldn't even play online until I downloaded a tool to hack our score back to normal after contacting Activision support told me there was nothing they could do for 2 weeks.

Anyway Dedicated servers and real cheat protection should go a long way in making BlackOps II just as enjoyable as BlackOps was on PC. Lots of good changes going in!
 

ACE 1991

Member
So how is the PC community like for COD games? I'm interested in grabbing this because I really don't have a good competitive FPS in my life at the moment, and I kind of missed the boat on Battlefield 3.
 
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