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Call of Duty Elite Actually Doesn't Sound Totally Terrible

If you were going to buy all of the DLC anyway, it's actually kind of a deal.

Whether you want it or not, Modern Warfare 3 is coming--and it's going to be huge this year. Again.
Whether you want it or not, Modern Warfare 3 is coming--and it's going to be huge this year. Again.

Activision has discussed a subscription service around Call of Duty for years, but it's finally coming together this year with Call of Duty Elite. The initial response wasn't great, to say the least. People, perhaps rightfully, feared Activision would lock formerly free content behind a paywall.

Activision kept saying that wouldn't happen. This weekend at Call of Duty XP, a massive fan event held in Los Angeles, the publisher seemed to to have mostly made good on that promise.

Call of Duty Elite will set you back $49.99 a year, $10 less than a (new) Xbox Live Gold subscription. Purchasing all of the DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops--four map packs at $15 each--would have cost you $60. In that sense, Activision's offering players a cheaper deal, they just need to pay up front. This is being called the "premium membership."

The free version of Call of Duty Elite features stat tracking ala Bungie.net, integration with Facebook, clan support and applications for your mobile devices.

The company said the DLC "season" for Modern Warfare 3 will be nine months long, with monthly DLC made available for premium members. Additionally, premium members gain access to daily competitions for both in-game and real-world prizes, a round-the-clock competition calendar, up to 24 minutes of recordable HD video and access to Call of Duty TV.

Call of Duty TV will feature original video content related to--you guessed it--Call of Duty. Ridley Scott Associates (yes, that Ridley Scott) is working on Friday Night Fights, where rivals fight it out, while actors Will Arnett and Jason Bateman collaborate for a program called n00b Tube. There's another one slated, Cocked Hammers, that we don't have any details about yet.

I don't usually end stories with a question, but are you going to signing up?

Patrick Klepek on Google+

182 Comments

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Atary77

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Edited By Atary77

If I buy this game,  will simply stick with the content on the disc and play it vanilla thank you, and that will be after a year when the next CoD comes out. Least that way I'll be getting it for a better price. What's that? Then I won't be with the in crowd who plays the multiplayer from day one? Fuck them, I enjoy the Single Player more anyway. And The only multiplayer I care about these days are co-op modes that I can play with 2-4 for friends. And if none of the folks on my friend's list are playing this, then the Campeighn is the only thing worth my attention.
 
Bottom line, games should be good enough Vanilla when they ship. If not then Activision can take it's over priced DLC and shove it up thier ass

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miva2

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Edited By miva2

i would if i played cod

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Forum_User

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Edited By Forum_User

$15 for a map pack sounds terrible, and so does $12.50.  I'm not even a huge FPS person, but I know that many other games provide a far better value on that front.

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Slaneesh

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Edited By Slaneesh

I do play cod alot and im holding of considering anything untill i find out if theyre going to provide any post launch support.

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nail1080

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Edited By nail1080
@Marokai said:
@leebmx said:
@Buckfitches said:

This fucking age of endless DLC needs to end. Sweet deal my ass.

Just keep some of the maps out of the final release, churn out a helmet or jacket for your character every month, and somehow, Activision manages to squeeze 110$ out of everyone for a single game, only to pull the exact same shit next year.

This is getting out of hand.

Well said my man.
Yep, I'm well tired of it myself. Video game companies have managed to slowly nickle and dime us so much over the years that we've basically ended up in a system of never-ending payment. You want this month's new maps? Give us 15 dollars. Oh, you want the next month's too? 15 more dollars please. Like an additional game mode? Please give us 15 more dollars.   Remember when shit used to cost 5 and 10 dollars? Now 5 dollar anything on Xbox Live is basically extinct, 10 dollar stuff is even becoming a rarity. Every single time there's a slight uptick in price, people justify it, even the games press that is supposed to hold these folks' feet to the fire, as "not really being that bad." But when does it become bad? How many times to we have to pay a little more, a little more, a little more, until it becomes "actually kind of bad"?   It makes me chuckle when I read some threads about the oncoming generation, and how so many people don't want a new generation of consoles yet because they don't want $70 games. Guys, look at these endless DLC schemes. You're already spending more than 70 dollars on games.
Ever hear of inflation? Ever hear an old man saying..."back in my day for 10 dollars you could get....." Well shit happens, prices go up, deal with it or just ignore it
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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Yea still to much for map packs for me.

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Dad_Is_A_Zombie

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Edited By Dad_Is_A_Zombie

Seems to me it's only a deal if you are OK with map packs being $15 a piece to begin with. I like COD but I'm passing on this.

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01wilsonj

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Edited By 01wilsonj

So do i get online multiplayer as well as the maps or will i need to maintain my xbox live membership? xo

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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog

@aTmoz said:

So its 50 bucks for cod elite and 50 for xbox live :/ NO thank you

No, remember, XBox Live has gone up to $60.

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deactivated-5da3d18e4cdc9

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@Djangosix: Actually, sales wise it's on the uphill. Black Ops sold more in its first 9 months than MW2 sold in the year plus since its release.

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Sharpshooter

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Edited By Sharpshooter

I won't he signing up for this. Believe it or not I play call of duty for the singleplayer.

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SilentZero

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Edited By SilentZero

I was going to say fuck this, but monthly dlc? I'll give it a chance and see what they are offering.

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skelegore

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Edited By skelegore

If bf3 tanks, I might get the $99 edition just because Elite is an extra $40 as opposed to $50. And I would preorder if the day before it comes out on amazon as a last minute decision anyway. If your going to buy the dlc anyway, its not a terrible idea.

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Egge

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Edited By Egge

I don't play CoD multiplayer myself but saying that this is a good deal first requires one to accept as reasonable the high price of the individual DLC packs in the first place. And since a lot of people have had issues with the pricing structure before, the Elite subscription can only be adequately judged in light of those longstanding concerns.

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deactivated-5fb7c57ae2335

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Well, I'm not buying MW3 anyway, because that in itself is just a big new map pack for MW2. So, fuck all of this, fucking SNAFU

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Tesla

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Edited By Tesla

You know what deal is even sweeter than this? Battlefield 3 for 60 bucks.

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Aaron_G

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Edited By Aaron_G

No, I will not sign up because I will not be playing MW3.

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Luchalma

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Edited By Luchalma

I'd certainly never buy something like this but some people really do love their Call of Duty...

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Strangorth

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Edited By Strangorth
@Procyon27 said:
So many people here that don't play COD and won't play COD complaining about something that does not affect them.  It's teh lolz.

It'll affect said people if Elite sells well and other companies start doing something similar until it becomes the norm. Buy our game for x amount then shell out another x amount to subscribe for all our planned 'DLC'. Before the days of downloadable content games were released without holding back features in a bid to make yet more money, today the rich get richer.

Before DLC we had expansions, a rarer breed today and usually only for PC, which were fairly priced and for the most part contained hella more content than a few maps and some gimmicky stat tracking system.

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jaegernaut

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Edited By jaegernaut

still not sure if I am going to sign up and, I am mind of a big deal
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craigbandicoot

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Edited By craigbandicoot

Woooo! $49.99 on a load of maps, how can I say no!? 
Quite easily it turns out. This will never be an investment for me. Ever.

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Diablos1125

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Edited By Diablos1125

Nah its not for me. Not enough value IMO, I dont care how good the maps are.

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i77ogical

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Edited By i77ogical
@Strangorth said:
@Procyon27 said:
So many people here that don't play COD and won't play COD complaining about something that does not affect them.  It's teh lolz.

It'll affect said people if Elite sells well and other companies start doing something similar until it becomes the norm. Buy our game for x amount then shell out another x amount to subscribe for all our planned 'DLC'. Before the days of downloadable content games were released without holding back features in a bid to make yet more money, today the rich get richer.

Before DLC we had expansions, a rarer breed today and usually only for PC, which were fairly priced and for the most part contained hella more content than a few maps and some gimmicky stat tracking system.

I went to the eye doctor this week. Her fee was $10 more for an exam than it was two years ago. She didn't mention the increase, it probably didn't even occur to her, and I got nothing more out of the exam than last time. It was the same exam, $10 more expensive. 
 
Sure, video games provided more content back in the day, for less money, or for free. Those days are generally over. At the same time, the games today are more fully-featured. You get a campaign, some kind of coop, a multiplayer side with dozens of unlocks, and some kind of Horde mode now for $60. Games in the old days did not give you this much in the box. So you got stuff after for free, or you got to use fan-made levels. It's a trade off, in my opinion. I don't see buying CoD Elite as hurting anything. It's just a product. Not buying it will not send a message, either. CoD has made $2 billion dollars in the last 2 years. The genie is out of the bottle. 
 
At least we're getting something with the price increases. My eye doctor, or the gas station, just raise the price for the same thing.
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NikzB

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Edited By NikzB

I cannot support Activision, but I'm sure CoD players will like it or not. Better then 15 dollar map packs.

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Codester

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Edited By Codester

I don't put nearly enough time into Call of Duty to justify paying that price for maps.  I might still buy MW3, however I'm definitely not getting the DLC.

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InKtOiD

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Edited By InKtOiD

I find the fact that the "Grammar Nazis" generally only type one or possibly two word sentences indicates their level of writing as a whole. You have some need inside of you to take the time to point out the faults and flaws within the work of others; most likely this is due, in some part, to the failures of yourself. 
 
Try not to take your inner disappointment out on other people that actually add something to your knowledge bank. Perhaps let that feeling well up long enough that it bursts forth and then take the only plausible course of action, realize you are as worthless as everyone else thinks you are and then kill yourself.
 
~InK~

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SeriouslyNow

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Edited By SeriouslyNow

@jonesrm said:

That does sound like mind of a a deal.

That does sound terrible. Totally. *hair flick*

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lacke

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Edited By lacke

"DLC season". Shit.. I had no problems with DLC as long as they treated them like mini expansion because I loved old PC style expansion packs. However, the problem I have is that most DLC are overpriced especially map packs, imo. This will just make me stay away from MW3. 
 
Not even going to buy the game. I'm not going to buy overpriced map packs, I'm not going to buy an Elite subscription, I don't want to feel locked out when I play multiplayer after a month and I definitely don't like the segregation of people with different map packs, no I fucking hate it. Different playlists/servers depending on which map packs you own. I FUCKING HATE IT.  (It's in CAPS because it's the only appropriate way to write hate comments, otherwise it's not hate.)

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mordukai

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Edited By mordukai

Activision should just drop the pretenses and rename themselves Call of Duty. This reminds me of the Spongebob episode where he got really popular so Mr. Crabs made everything Spongebob theme. He eventually went insane and started talk by only saying spongebob. I feel sorry for the developers working for activision.

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MisterDakotaJ

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Edited By MisterDakotaJ

I've known people who play C.O.D. and only C.O.D. This sounds like a great deal for them. For everyone else, it's dumb. Really dumb. Especially if you're on the X-Box and already paying for you're online gaming experience.

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Corvak

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Edited By Corvak

I see nothing wrong with it. If you're a big CoD fan, you're getting a lot of bonus content for what is essentially what you'd be paying for the DLC anyway.

I feel the Black Ops DLC packs were about $5 more than they should have been but...I didn't buy them. Activision will keep maximizing it's profits, and I can't hate them because people want to pay that much for a map pack. As we saw with Guitar Hero, when the cash flow slows down, Activision will stop milking the cow.

The original maps will still work, and your character can progress on them just fine. It's not like an MMO where you have to buy each expansion or be left behind. WoW players are paying $40 each time, above their monthly $12.95, and if they don't they're practically playing a solo game. As a result, WoW is losing subscriptions...its numbers are starting to fall off, and they didn't all come back for the newest expansion like they usually do.

Personally, I feel they should slow down, move to a 24 month rotation for CoD games. All it takes is one sub-par CoD, and everyone will just keep playing the old one, and the cycle is broken.

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FresherThanAir

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Edited By FresherThanAir

I most likely won't buy this 'elite' membership, I enjoyed Modern Warfare 2 + Black Ops fine without the DLC (Black Ops ruined zombies for me) I would rather just buy the sets of DLC like they normally do.