COD MW3 To Feature Subscription "Elite" Service

A bit of further information:

The goals of Elite are to give COD players–one of the most rabid fanbases in all of gaming–a way to interact with each other outside of the game and deepen the experience they get from the game.

Think of it as Facebook with crossbows, shotguns and hand grenades.

I got to try out Elite at a recent hands-on event. Myself and other members of the press went at it in Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer, running around and slaying each other in the usual frantic fashion for about half an hour. After that play session, we loaded up the beta version of the Elite website and could see a wealth of information about our movements, where we died and where we scored kills. Right away, we could see how many melee kills, say, a player notched in a round. While this info is already available to players in Call of Duty: Black Ops, navigating to it through the current interface is a pain and something you may not want to do during an all-nighter.

Elite also parses the data in different ways and will give each user one single profile that will link into all future COD games. The beta for Elite will use Black Ops play sessions to test out server load and core functionality. But Activision says that players won't get a full sense of how Elite really feels until after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches in November. MW3 and Elite have been built to interlock with each other and every COD game that follows this year's release will support the Elite platform.

Most modern games mine data from their users, ostensibly to give developers feedback as to how people play and what to tweak in the design stages. Elite opens up the back-end to consumers, letting them see what loadout a particular player uses, how he or she fared in recent matches and their membership in various groups.

You'll be able to join multiple interest groups but can only have membership in one clan. Members will also be able to participate in scheduled events like double XP weekends and watch user-generated videos via the Elite platform. Activision is positioning Elite as an online coaching system of sorts, letting players review their sessions and tune their approaches with the available data.

With Elite, you'll be able to look at a heat map–a blueprint of a level that shows where you killed and died–with a timeline function charting the duration of the map. It's a bit like a pro athlete reviewing recordings of his own play and that of his opponents before and after a match-up. Users will be able to log into COD Elite on Apple's portable devices and Activision says that an Android app is on the way, too.

So with that backdrop, the big question remains: How's Call of Duty Elite going to make money? The answer to that is in the premium option of the service that Activision will be offering.

Premium subscribers will be able to compete in contests against each other for prizes and Activision's also planning to set up tournaments against top-ranked and maybe even celebrity players. There's no word on pricing for premium membership yet, but it's expected to be in the $8-$10/month range as charged by other content subscription services like Netflix. Company reps likened the premium status to country club memberships. You're playing the same sport, but shell out cash for a better experience.

And while Elite promises to give all your COD activity a place to live, there will be a cut-off as far as the history of the franchise is concerned. Despite the fact that older Call of Duty games like 2009's Modern Warfare 2 still enjoy healthy, active communities, Activision's not promising that Elite will be backward-compatible beyond Black Ops. Previous games may harvest the same data for leaderboards and statistics, but they weren't built to feed into Elite the way that Modern Warfare 3 will be.

Jamie Berger, Activision's President of Digital, says that the publisher believes that social integration will be the next vector of innovation in video games. Just as they're now judged on graphics, gameplay and other elements, games in the coming years will be judged on how well they let you connect to other players.

Elite isn't the first service to give gamers a portable identity across multiple games. Bungie rolled out Bungie.net with the debut of Halo 2 and Blizzard's long had their Battle.net service for players of World of Warcraft and Starcraft games. Those services, however, have been free with no enticement of an extra tier for those who'd pay for it.

Still, Call of Duty boasts an incredibly engaged user community, with Activision claiming that 7 million people play a COD game every day. In the hyper-competitive ecosystem surrounding most multiplayer video games, it's a fair gamble to think that at least some of those 7 million daily players will pay for the chance to improve. If Activision's Elite bet pays off, it'll be the ultimate perk.

As a business move, Elite looks like a first step towards more robust social networking around Activision's games and a way to look for additional revenue streams. Activision's business strategy has annualized many of their big franchises, like Spider-Man or Transformers, to increase profits. With Call of Duty in particular, it's rotated the development teams that make each year's game to ensure a fresh release every holiday season.

They also offer downloadable content at a higher price point than other publishers and, at $15 for three extra levels, some fans feel like the DLC map packs for COD games are overpriced. Nevertheless, Activision's remained steadfast in saying that they're never going to charge COD players for online access.
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So from that, it seems like stats etc could be free and you pay to enter competitions. Cannot see that many people paying for that type of service.
 
Lol'd at the same phrase "Hyper-realistic combat simulation game". Sounds to me like the press are already sold out (or just clueless). When the WSJ does something like this, you just know all the company care's about is money.
 
Scougar said:
Lol'd at the same phrase "Hyper-realistic combat simulation game". Sounds to me like the press are already sold out (or just clueless). When the WSJ does something like this, you just know all the company care's about is money.
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The mainstream press is always clueless about gaming!
 
And no thanks. Another game destroyed by activision accountants. WoW is going the same way because of this milking behaviour. I realise a business needs to grow but not by eating at the good graces of the players. Activision must be the only company that doesnt let the price of games drop when they become old hat and now this. No more from me Bobby 'fry in hell' Cocktic!
 
Hey Guys,

Because we don't buy into this subscription crap does that mean were not elite!?! insulting much!!!

I'm glad I gave my xbox to a m8 recently, console gamers are getting really screwed now that there's more casuals playing/using them.

PLEASE EA just release the pre-order of BF3 on steam and you will rule the FPS world. Though i do have to pay £20 to get into the BF3 beta it's a lesser evil if you ask me.
 
You seen how many hackers there were in MW2 after a year? Fix the proper stuff, don't make new crap nobody gives a **** about!
 
Hellsmk2 said:
And the people who don't bother to buy this tripe, therefore not supporting a **** money-grabbing franchise win for now!

The sad thing is that idiots will buy this game, and as a result, we'll be seeing pay-to-play fps's becoming much more common place.
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i will buy the base game because i actually like it.
i realise that sounds a bit odd, this being the internet and all.

so yes, i will be one of the idiots to buy the game.
i will be that exact idiot running round the maps with base weapons destroying anyone with pay to play accounts using weapons i could care less about.

as long as i can use a basic SMG class with standard addons then that is all i need. if they want to charge people more money for premium features then fine. but as long as i have a gun and it fires bullets at people i could really care less what other people are shooting at me.
 
Meh, when they actually try with their games and stop producing shovelware that sells because of name only..

Its amazing the avenues that online console gaming has opened to developers wanting to charge for every single little thing. Even a free map these days for the cod series seems to be an impossibility. Doesn't matter that black ops has raked in well over a billion dollars, they still want to milk the ever loving crap out of people. :rolleyes:
 
B&W said:
Forget MW3, its gonna be the same tripe as last year.

BF3 all the way :D
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Quoted for truth.

COD suits certain gamers but it certainly isn't to my taste, I want a decent game!

I cannot see how they can justify charging for it but i'm sure a lot will still pay :confused: if ANY fps charged I would stop playing it, regardless.
 
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