Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has been talking about publishers, specifically Activision, launching online subscription services to better monetize the vast amounts of online play taking place these days. While Pachter thought it would happen by the end of the year, he's now backtracked on that, suggesting it will happen at some point in 2011 instead. Consequently, Wedbush has removed the Activision Blizzard stock from its Best Ideas List.

"We are removing Activision from the BIL as we believe that the introduction of online subscription services for Call of Duty will take several more months to materialize (once again, the company gave no indication that a subscription plan is in the works)," Pachter noted.

"We expect Activision to announce plans to monetize multiplayer online some time in 2011, and expect greater visibility into the release schedule throughout the year. When we have greater visibility, we think we will be able to identify positive catalysts, and we fully expect to add Activision back to our Best Ideas List at that time."

Whenever Activision or another publisher eventually does introduce extra subscription fees, they will have to tread carefully and offer a ton of value on top of the online gameplay, as many players are already paying $60 a year for Xbox Live.