The Wall Street Journal has confirmed speculation that the online service Activision is planning for the Call of Duty franchise will indeed be called Call of Duty: Elite. Speculation about the name surfaced earlier this month when a logo for Elite surfaced online. The service is being developed by a recently formed internal studio, Beachhead.
Call of Duty: Elite will add a premium layer of content onto Modern Warfare 3, but multiplayer will remain free.
As suspected, COD: Elite will be a premium service offering extra content for a monthly fee, not an attempt to charge for multiplayer gameplay. In fact, some of the content offered on Elite, such as a Facebook-like social networking aspect, will be completely free.
"COD ELITE is free, for all players, some paid aspects TBD. Absolutely NO fee to play #MW3 multiplayer. Detailed reveal coming tomorrow AM," tweeted Infinity Ward creative consultant Robert Bowling Monday night. " #MW3 multiplayer is free to play as it always is."
According to the Journal, Activision executives expect the monthly cost for COD: Elite to be less than that of Netflix's lowest-level service, which costs $8/month. In exchange for that fee, subscribers will get access to more map packs and analytical tools that will allow players to gauge their in-game performance according to kills by weapon type and other factors.
Speaking with the Journal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the service is intended to supplement the Call of Duty experience, and emphasized that the multiplayer aspect of Modern Warfare 3 will remain free. He also said that customer service for Elite is so extensive, that the service couldn't be supported for free.
For a detailed examination of Call of Duty: Elite, check back tomorrow morning for GameSpot's preview of the service.
The highlighted part has me scratching my head. Didn't REACH offer the whole "tracking performance" thing for free and as part of the damn game?
Before you know it you will be able to buy guns/level upgrades and only be able to play with people who don't have this Elite bullshit. Sounds like MW is going to become like WoW in the future and require people to pay a monthly fee.
Fucking greedy ass Infinity Ward ruining my online experience one game at a time.
wow who the fuck cares. it's not like you will have to pay for things that you never did have to pay for. this is clearly targeting hardcore CoD players and commentators. it's hardly going to "ruin your online experience"
November will be an expensive month for me, BF3, MW3, and hopefully a new MoH. IMO this year id have to say MoH overtook CoD as my favorite recent fps, atleast multiplayer wise. I still argue with people though that cod4 is the one of the best 360 games ever made.
Except it says you have access to maps with a monthly fee... that means you lose said maps if you stop paying the fee. Xbox owners already pay a yearly fee for online......
Halo 3 was a great game. Also, MoH sucked. I had high expectations for that game but it ended up just sucking. It was the first game I had ever returned due to how much I hated it.
seriously this. i just ordered a new one after losing mine a few months ago. so much awesome shit packed into a tiny little game that i just bought for 18 bucks shipped. can't fucking wait until it gets here. ima m40 all you
The way I read it is that Elite comes free but IF YOU PAY you get access to map packs and such. Does that mean I can pay for a month and DL all the maps and then not pay after that and still use them?
you pay a monthly fee to play xbox live...isn't that the same as paying for WoW?
video game companies are going to start adding fees...its inevitable, they want more money, and people will pay to play their game.
If they do decide to do that, I hope they slow down release rates...instead of a new CoD every year...how about every 3/4 years and just have patches and such up until a new game....at least then you'd get your money's worth.
With x-box live you pay to play every single game you have online. But with this new elite bullshit they are making you pay another $8 a month for a single game. Just like Wow since that is a single game. X-box live fee isn't an issue at all but charging extra money a month to just play one game is bullshit IMO.
it still won't stop people from playing it....it may turn away some people obviously...but there are plenty of moms and dads out there who will pay for their kids to play...and enough fans that will do it anyways...they wouldn't do it if they didn't think people would buy it...like i said it's all about the money.
As a fellow gamer do I think it's bull shit...yup!
as a person who loves money as much as the creators of the game...its pure genius.
That article was posted march 9th 2010...and announced that MW2 had 25 million unique players...and yes that can me people who played one match...and people with 140 days played.
With that 8 dollar elite option...Im sure at the very least half of those users would option to do the monthly fee...so 12.5 million people for 8 dollars a month...over a year.
Easy money.