Activision won't likely introduce paid Early Access program

Despite EA's recent move, Activision isn't likely to follow suit.

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EA already has introduced the EA Access service on Xbox One, albiet with limited time given for Madden NFL 15 game. It seems like the kind of move that other publishers might imitate, but you probably shouldn't expect it from Activision.

The company, which recently went through two successful betas for the forthcoming Destiny, has a different way of thinking when it comes to growth, as shown through the launch of the returning Sierra brand last week. Eric Hirshberg told Game Informer it has no intention of exploring such a service.

When it comes to early access, "we haven't done that and I think that when we've given early access it's either been as a perk to our most loyal fans like we just announced with (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare) Day Zero," he said. "With the Destiny beta, we're launching a new IP, we're launching some new play patterns, we've got a lot that we want to make sure feels right in the hands of a community at scale.

"There's only one way to do that," he continued. "So that added tremendous value – to do a beta. That added tremendous value to our development process. I don't think we're looking at those in that way that you described. I think we're looking at them either as part of the development process or as incentives and perks for loyal fans. But like I said, we're always looking at business models and we're always going to be curious as to what fans find valuable.

"We've got a bunch of passionate, geeked-out gamers at Activision and we've got this treasure trove of IP that people have a lot of nostalgia and affection and affinity for," he concluded, bringing up Sierra. "I think it'll be an interesting experiment and it's important to remember that things like Skylanders started very small. Skylanders was originally scoped as a single-player Spyro game and it became this juggernaut that disrupted both the kids video game industry and the toy industry. So sometimes big things can start small and I think it's an opportunity for us to work with some interesting new talent and see what happens."

Robert Workman was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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