The business of leisure

Call of Duty has a typically complex revenue structure for massive multiplayer video

The popular first person shooter franchise Call of Duty (CoD) has released a new game every year since at least 2005. This year's version has understandably been delayed. However, the game developer Activision did a revamp of the 2019 edition (Modern Warfare). That revamp was released on March 10 as various countries headed into lockdown. By April, it had over 50 million downloads, which is epic even by CoD standards.

CoD has a typically complex revenue structure for massive multiplayer video. New games are free for a stipulated period before becoming paid. There is one free forever CoD version, Warzone. That