Pachter - Activision worried that subscription fees for Black Ops would hurt sales

“Activision apparently worried that announcing multiplayer subscriptions before the launch of Black Ops would hurt sales. It’s likely that around 60 - 70% of the people who buy Black Ops do so to play online multiplayer, and a greater number of the first week purchasers. Even if Activision retained fully free online multiplayer, the mere mention of a ‘premium’ subscription service will tick off some consumers, and there might have been a backlash at the precise time that they needed to set records. They decided not to take that risk.” - Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter

Mr. Pachter offered up his grand plan for the online monetization of Call of Duty. If you want to see how he believes things should work, click here.