Call of Duty Online Open Public Beta Starts in China
Call of Duty Online, a free-to-play Call of Duty spinoff that Western gamers may never get to play, has now launched its open public beta in China.
Developed by American Activision subsidiary Raven Software and hosted by Chinese internet company Tencent, Call of Duty Online is a PC-only mashup of assets from games including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Black Ops overlaid with a free-to-play monetization scheme designed for the Chinese market. You can buy or rent items in the game with real money.
“Millions of gamers in the West have come to appreciate that white-knuckled, epic thrill-ride that only Call of Duty delivers. And now an entire new audience of gamers will experience this for the first time. We believe Call of Duty Online is going to be a game-changer for Chinese gamers,” Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said in a statement reported by GameSpot.
“We couldn’t be more excited and we look forward to winning the hearts and minds of a new community in China,” Hirshberg said.
The game features multiplayer, single player and co-op modes. One big difference for the Chinese market is that there is no zombie mode. Instead, Chinese gamers get a unique cyborg mode. Activision and its Chinese partners have gone all out in marketing the game, creating a flashy big-budget commercial featuring Captain America star Chris Evans.
No word on if this will ever leave China. The bigger question is, do we want it to? After years of being pampered with AAA traditional console games where a full experience is offered to us in one package, do we really want to rent our guns in a free-to-play game?