Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Just days after crystal-ball-staring gaming analyst Michael Pachter warned that it's necessary for Activision to start monetizing Call of Duty's multiplayer, perhaps as soon as Black Ops later this year, a video (seen below) was posted on Youtube which seemingly outed an upcoming pay-to-play subscription model for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer. Well, the good news is that, for now, Activision has no plans to charge gamers for online multiplayer in either Modern Warfare 2, or Black Ops.

"Reports of a subscription membership in Modern Warfare 2 are not true," a Activision spokesperson told IGN. "Activision has no plans to charge gamers to play Call of Duty multiplayer."

Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling also reassured gamers that there's no plans to charge for Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer.

"To be clear: There is not, and will never be, additional fees required to subscribe and play Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer," said Bowling on his blog. "The video above seems to show a user on what appears to be the Xbox Live Gold Membership renewal page via the Marketplace in the guide, but while in-game in Modern Warfare 2 (which is in error)," he added. "It does not however, prove a pay-to-play subscription model is in the works for Modern Warfare 2, because no such plan exists for this or any other Call of Duty (including the upcoming Black Ops). That said, feel free to cease freaking out."

The same message came out of Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch, with community manager Josh Olin tweeting, "No, you will not have to 'Pay to Play' #CODBlackOps Multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed."

So there you have it, for the time being you won't have to worry about forking out anymore of your hard earned cash to play your Call of Duty online. At least, not for the foreseeable future.