The rumors of Activision charging additional fees for Call of Duty online multiplayer have been pretty persistent for the better part of the past year. Even when Activision has stated multiple times that they won't be charging for online play, it still keeps coming up.
Well, we can clear the air on this whole matter with the announcement of "Call of Duty: Elite," a free and paid service that is built specifically to take full advantage of Modern Warfare 3 and all future Call of Duty titles. Elite will launch with Modern Warfare 3 but there will be a public beta test this summer for Elite using Call of Duty: Black Ops. The official site will have more details soon.
Activision wasn't ready to talk about a price point, but a number of the features I'm going to detail for you will be part of the free service. As for the paid content, it will cost "less than any comparable online service for gaming or entertainment," according to Jamie Berger, VP of Digital at Activision. The service will also be an all-inclusive one, meaning that all digital content released for Modern Warfare 3 -- such as map packs -- will be delivered to you at no extra cost.
The team behind Elite, Beachhead, is a new standalone team at Activision that is dedicated to "evolving the [Call of Duty] service year-round." The service will provide worldwide, 24/7 programming and customer service for all the features that promise to enrich your experience.
Elite will be available through the web and within the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. We were shown a very slick, quick and easy-to-use page that's broken up into four sections: Career, Connect, Compete and Improve.
I also got a quick preview of the Elite mobile app (the iPhone version, specifically), which will be a streamlined version of all that the web and console versions will offer.
Career
Players will get to see an overview of critical game stats, recent performances, win/loss ratio, XP, personal bests, weapon performances, leaderboards and more, all in the Career section. You can easily compare your performances against anyone simply by typing in their username. You will also have access to "heat" maps, with a timeline that shows you where every kill/death took place along with the weapon used.
Connect
Connect gives you easy access to other players and lets you find specific gametypes that you want to try. You can look for your favorite playlists, see who else likes the specific gametype you're looking at and make matches happen. Your friends list is integrated into the website to speed up the process, too.
Connect goes even further than that, as you can find groups of people who share similar interests. There's a search bar on the page and, for instance, you can type in "Destructoid," which will instantly connect you with other gamers who are into Destructoid as well. If a group doesn't exist already, then you can easily create it yourself. Group pages will have leaderboards just for the members of that group, including stats (like the collective hours played), and you can even leave comments on the group like a Facebook fan page.
The final feature that Beachhead showed off for Connect was the theater section. Here, you can see staff picks, most viewed, most liked or recent videos users have created in Modern Warfare 3.
Compete
This is the official tournament section driven by Beachhead. The developers will have a consistently updated program guide that users can participate in to win prizes. One example given was a screenshot contest, where you'll be able to share a screenshot and the best one will win some kind of prize. For the most part, participating will net you in-game badges, but real prizes on offer include an iPad.
Elite will include robust support for private clans that can be integrated into the game, too. More information on that will be made available later, but for now, know that you'll be able to organize tournaments and set up clashes like group-vs.-group, clan-vs.-clan, and intra-clan tournaments.
Improve
The final section is exactly what it sounds like. Improve goes deep into the experience and should be able to help you become better at Call of Duty online. You'll get to view top-down images of any map marked up with starting points, objectives and the general flow that a mode can take. Weapons, attachments, killstreaks, perks -- it all gets broken down, allowing the player to study the pros and cons of everything.
Improve will even provide video guides, which are way more useful than printed strategy guides.
Final thoughts:
Activision strongly believes that this is the next step in online gaming, and feels that this will really enrich the Call of Duty multiplayer experience. The company is committed to making sure it gets the premium membership right, and it will be interesting to see what they pull off in that regard.
I'm really curious to see how much Activision is going to charge for this service. If it ends up being less than $30 a year, well, that's great. So far, the last two Call of Duty games have each released two map packs at $15 a pop. The Elite program will get you all the downloadable maps plus the full service features.
The question, though, is if the Elite service will be worth it when compared to the free offerings. I'm also curious as to whether you get to hang on to the maps once your Elite service has run out.
What's your take on the whole thing? Do you see yourself using Elite?
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i mean i don't really dig the cod franchise anyway, but i'm trying to picture a service like this for a game that i do play online and just, no. no thanks.
To me this looks like "Take a bunch of features offered for the Battlefield franchise (and has been for along time) and charge COD players for similar features. BLOWS!!!
6o dollar game, 5o bucks for a year of xbl gold and they want people to pay more? Shame on you,activision. People shouldn't have to pay extra for a good multiplayer experience, it should be covered in their annual 6o dollar game...fuck activision
I'm still amazed at the amount of people playing these games. This franchise has become something more than just a game. It's a god damn cult. Curious to see what this will be like:)
No. I'll just grab MW3 when it's about £25, play the online till I'm bored 9usually about 2-3 weeks) and trade it in for a little less than i paid for it.
Paying a subscription fee for DLC as opposed to paying per map COULD be OK in the long run, but we'll see.
The rest of the stuff sounds OK, but it's similar to what Bungie has been doing for like a decade with bungie.net... only Bungie's has always remained free.
I don't see myself using the service. This looks like it is geared to the competitive gamer that takes the game seriously, which is fair enough as it's a job to them as well.
I think there needs to be more incentive for people to use a service like this though, as in actual content they will use like the maps but with a lot more like premium only weapon and character skins.
Like Hamza said, if it is under $30 for a year, that's not really a crazy number for die hard COD fans (which probably isn't a lot of us here at Destructoid). All my friends will be all over this though.
its funny all the ppl that laugh at this, most are COD/MW haters... as i am, but this is just the begining of ALL games doing this... GREED ppl, this isnt going to end if this fails, which its not... since there are going to a TON of ppl who will pay for this and they will make a profit... so yeah just wait, DLC, preorder bonuses, and this... jsut wait, the gaming industry will find any way to drain you of money....there still comeing out with games that are 6-7 hours long that are 60$
I have no idea why people are trying to be optimistic about the pricing from a Bobby Kotick game. He is consistently on record about how much gouge gamers. I'd be shocked if this is any less than 8 dollars a month actually. Haven't PC gamers been getting things like this for free since forever anyone? Bit by bit companies are trying to make you pay for every single asset in a game individually.
I don't actually play Modern Warfare so I really can't speak as to how this will affect anything, but I just hope this doesn't become precedent to other companies getting away with payed premium content. Then again, the CoD franchise and fanbase are a special case in that it's so strong that it'll get away with something like this.
You stupid little hater pricks have forgotten ONE thing;
This is completely OPTIONAL, you don't HAVE to pay for all this stuff. Most of these features are free anyway. If you don't like it, DONT FUCKING GET IT.
Anyway, I love going online on COD - its a good online game to play when you're bored - but I'm NOT paying for this. I already pay for Xbox Live, cba with anything on top of that. I'll get the free version of this, but nout more. Cause unlike most of the retards on here, I got NO PROBLEM with paying £10 for map packs.
Like tarvu and wolfy said, its like bungie but better, and stats will probably be free. If they try to make people pay for stats, someone will just make an app to track that stuff and hook in using the web backend for elite.
Anyway, I need more information about the premium stuff they are offering to see if it justifies whatever price they are going to slap on it. Also, I don't understand the bitching people are doing over this. If it's a subscription for other crap, and they are releasing stuff on a monthly basis, how is this any different from any other subscription model that does the same thing? Or is it just different because it's Activision and people are supposed to automatically rebel and hate it?
But consider this: Activision offers a yearly cost of less than $30 per year initially. Everyone gets onboard because they'll get the map packs without thinking and they can just keep playing. Plus they get all the newer features.
Now that they have people hooked, Activision starts adding in more stuff, and much like Live, will raise the price over time. What begins at a slightly lesser profit explodes into something much larger. This of course assumes that gamers don't eventually get tired of yearly CoD games.
I'm praying that gamers are smarter than this, but CoD bros kept the sports game genre chugging along healthily for quite some time. Hell, they still do really.
Lol yeah its optional now, and then if this succeeds more games might start adopting this trend. Then soon they will start removing things from the game that should be free and add them to this optional service to get more people to pay.
So long as I don't have to pay to play, I'm totally fine with this. If people wish to expand their "experience" with a little extra dough, then let them.
Yeah, I guess that would make sense. I'm pretty sure Activison will reveal full details on E3, we'll see. Could be kind of useful for big fans of the franchise.
By the way: "You'll get to view top-down images of any map marked up with starting points".
I don't play COD online much, but from what I hear a lot of people complain how some players kill them the moment they spawn. How is showing everyone the spawnpoints help?
Sure it's optional. Map packs are optionaal, yet people have been desensitized into thinking $30 for a couple map packs is okay. Now Activision is finally offering standard online features in a bundle that will tease "premium" content, and the millionns of people who fanatically follow this series will gladly pay. I would hope that the same result of Guitar Hero is on the horizon, but imy instincts tell me it will just continue selling, regardless of how frequently they're released, how much they charge for DLC, and however expensive this subscription is.
Thank Valve for Steam, and not having to deal exclusively with Activision's shenanigans.
Ya know, I don't play online FPSs and even if I did, I know that having alternatives in the form of Halo and Battlefield, who offer this kind of content that Activision is charging for free, I don't really see any incentive to bother.
I bet this service will be a perk for xbox live gold users. That would make a great moment at Microsoft's conference. Isn't a completely wild thought, considering their prior relationship.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 05.31.2011 | 
No. I'll just grab MW3 when it's about £25, play the online till I'm bored 9usually about 2-3 weeks) and trade it in for a little less than i paid for it.
Rinse, repeat, year after year after year.
The rest of the stuff sounds OK, but it's similar to what Bungie has been doing for like a decade with bungie.net... only Bungie's has always remained free.
This is how it starts...
I think there needs to be more incentive for people to use a service like this though, as in actual content they will use like the maps but with a lot more like premium only weapon and character skins.
Taken from the damn article.
I'm guessing the first two sections are free and the second two (and DLC) are paid.
Hamza's crazy if he thinks this will be $30, though. That would mean LESS money for Activision in the long run.
This is completely OPTIONAL, you don't HAVE to pay for all this stuff. Most of these features are free anyway. If you don't like it, DONT FUCKING GET IT.
Anyway, I love going online on COD - its a good online game to play when you're bored - but I'm NOT paying for this. I already pay for Xbox Live, cba with anything on top of that. I'll get the free version of this, but nout more. Cause unlike most of the retards on here, I got NO PROBLEM with paying £10 for map packs.
It's bullshit, but I'd expect no less out of Activision. Greedy bastards.
You guys got that? K good.
Anyway, I need more information about the premium stuff they are offering to see if it justifies whatever price they are going to slap on it. Also, I don't understand the bitching people are doing over this. If it's a subscription for other crap, and they are releasing stuff on a monthly basis, how is this any different from any other subscription model that does the same thing? Or is it just different because it's Activision and people are supposed to automatically rebel and hate it?
But consider this: Activision offers a yearly cost of less than $30 per year initially. Everyone gets onboard because they'll get the map packs without thinking and they can just keep playing. Plus they get all the newer features.
Now that they have people hooked, Activision starts adding in more stuff, and much like Live, will raise the price over time. What begins at a slightly lesser profit explodes into something much larger. This of course assumes that gamers don't eventually get tired of yearly CoD games.
I'm praying that gamers are smarter than this, but CoD bros kept the sports game genre chugging along healthily for quite some time. Hell, they still do really.
Yeah, I guess that would make sense. I'm pretty sure Activison will reveal full details on E3, we'll see. Could be kind of useful for big fans of the franchise.
By the way: "You'll get to view top-down images of any map marked up with starting points".
I don't play COD online much, but from what I hear a lot of people complain how some players kill them the moment they spawn. How is showing everyone the spawnpoints help?
Thank Valve for Steam, and not having to deal exclusively with Activision's shenanigans.