Activision Has Already Won the War with Modern Warfare 2’s $15 Map Pack

Pictured: Activision’s AC130 blowing its customers to bits.

Update: I’ve been told I’m barking up the wrong tree, and should be aiming this article toward Infinity Ward’s overlords at Activision, as they’re likely the ones who are setting the price for this DLC, rather than Infinity Ward itself. Upon further research I think that’s correct, and I apologize and have changed the post to reflect this.

The internet is ablaze today with outrage and fury over Activision’s pricing of the new Modern Warfare 2 map pack at a whopping $15. The “stimulus package” as it’s being called, features five new maps, two of them being remakes from the first Modern Warfare.

Somehow Activision has it in their heads that these five maps are worth 25% of the full price of the game, and sites everywhere are calling for boycotts of the map pack to teach Infinity Ward a lesson.

Well, I’m here to tell you it’s too late, and by simply having the balls to make this the price point in the first place, Infinity Ward has already won the war.

As furious as internet commenters can be, boycotts like this never work. Why? There’s no accountability. Remember the PC boycott of Modern Warfare 2? Great success! It’s one thing to tear Activision a new asshole in the comments section of Kotaku, but in two weeks when all your friends are bitching at you to get over yourself and buy the thing so you can play with them, we’ll see how strong your resolve is.

A $15 price point for this map pack is about a 50% hike over the regular $8-10 price for something like this. But that math implies that for this to not be cost effective for Activision, they would have to see a pretty massive drop in sales of the pack (as opposed to how many would have purchased it at a lower price). Will this happen? No, no, no.

The number one complaint about Modern Warfare 2 right now (other than f*cking campers) is the repetitiveness of the maps. Therefore, there will be an enormous amount of players who purchase this pack, even at its ridiculous price. And by banking on the players’ need for new content, by pricing it this high, if Activision gets a majority of the current players to buy the pack, it’s essentially like increasing their sales of the game anywhere from15-20%. All for what, a couple weeks of work designing these levels or copy/pasting from the original Modern Warfare?

Activision may be a bunch of dicks for doing this, but they’re dicks who are going to make an ass ton of money. Sure, it’s nice when companies who make good games are also good to their customers, but in this case, Activision is exploiting brand loyalty to cash in, and after this will undoubtedly continue to do so, and I expect we’ll see another full $60 worth of DLC for this thing before the end of its life cycle. And the worst part is, it’s guaranteed to work. Too many people are obsessed with this game to NOT pay whatever it takes to get new content for it, and Activision has unfortunately figured out that they have a golden goose on their hands. Good luck trying to strangle it.