Even though everyone knew Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was destined to be a massive hit, Activision (apparently) wasn’t fully prepared for the onsalught of users to access its new online destination, Call of Duty Elite.

Elite is best described as Call of Duty’s expanded answer to Halo's popular Bungie.net service.

“We are having trouble scaling the service to meet demand,” said the company in a statement. “Many of you are trying to get in and unfortunately, you can’t right now. You’re frustrated, we know it, and we know we need to fix it. Our teams have been working non-stop to identify issues and resolve them as quickly as possible. Again, these issues have no impact on the performance of the game.”

Your stats are still being tracked even without Call of Duty Elite fully functioning, so when Activision is able to get everything fully operational, all the data should just plug in without issue.

In order to make sure everything is cool, though, Activision is extending the premium membership for users by 30 days for free. Anyone considering becoming a “founder” will have until the end of the month to ensure that status, and will also receive an additional 30 days when they finally set it up.

“We are committed to Call of Duty Elite for the long haul and are working around the clock to resolve these issues,” continued the statement. “Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Even though everyone knew Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was destined to be a massive hit, Activision (apparently) wasn’t fully prepared for the onsalught of users to access its new online destination, Call of Duty Elite.

Elite is best described as Call of Duty’s expanded answer to Halo's popular Bungie.net service.

“We are having trouble scaling the service to meet demand,” said the company in a statement. “Many of you are trying to get in and unfortunately, you can’t right now. You’re frustrated, we know it, and we know we need to fix it. Our teams have been working non-stop to identify issues and resolve them as quickly as possible. Again, these issues have no impact on the performance of the game.”

Your stats are still being tracked even without Call of Duty Elite fully functioning, so when Activision is able to get everything fully operational, all the data should just plug in without issue.

In order to make sure everything is cool, though, Activision is extending the premium membership for users by 30 days for free. Anyone considering becoming a “founder” will have until the end of the month to ensure that status, and will also receive an additional 30 days when they finally set it up.

“We are committed to Call of Duty Elite for the long haul and are working around the clock to resolve these issues,” continued the statement. “Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

So Elite is not so much of an elite service?

@Hameyadea:

Skyrim

well good on them for adding a month for free.

@Hameyadea said:

So Elite is not so much of an elite service?

aaaahhhhhhhh I see what you are getting at.

So Elite is not so much of an elite service?

Elite AND Multiplayer isn't working for me, I'm on PS3. Better go play some more Battlefield then...

Would be much cooler if they offered the first map pack free, but this is okay too.

Cool of them to do this.

Wait people actually bought MW3?

I've never understood what the point is of offering chunks of such a service for free. You can only pay for this on a yearly basis, right? So giving you a free month is completely pointless because if you want to go beyond that, you still have to pony up the same amount.

@fargofallout said:

I've never understood what the point is of offering chunks of such a service for free. You can only pay for this on a yearly basis, right? So giving you a free month is completely pointless because if you want to go beyond that, you still have to pony up the same amount.

I don't think you understood what they're doing. They're giving subscribers and extra 30 days, making their 12 month pre-paid subscription worth 13 months for the same price. That's hardly pointless. That's like netflix offering you a free month of streaming or something, or more realistically Xbox offering an extra month of Xbox Live in the event of a major outage for a few days.

Simply put: 13>12.

How can you confirm that your paid membership on elite has taken? I entered the code in on my 360, but there doesn't seem to be any confirmation that the paid membership has started. Maybe when the site is more stable.

@Jmangino: Are you stupid?

@fargofallout said:

I've never understood what the point is of offering chunks of such a service for free. You can only pay for this on a yearly basis, right? So giving you a free month is completely pointless because if you want to go beyond that, you still have to pony up the same amount.

I don't think you understood what they're doing. They're giving subscribers and extra 30 days, making their 12 month pre-paid subscription worth 13 months for the same price. That's hardly pointless. That's like netflix offering you a free month of streaming or something, or more realistically Xbox offering an extra month of Xbox Live in the event of a major outage for a few days.

Simply put: 13>12.

@Fuga said:

@Jmangino: Are you stupid?

Ha that cat in the picture looks like mine. Sneaky puss, I had no idea she was internet famous.

I can't get into a multiplayer match on the 360 at all :(

@yoshimitz707 said:

Skyrim

This is correct.

@Krummey said:

@Hameyadea

So Elite is not so much of an elite service?

I don't get it.

@Fuga said:

@Jmangino: Are you stupid?

skyrim what?

@Stackboy said:

How can you confirm that your paid membership on elite has taken? I entered the code in on my 360, but there doesn't seem to be any confirmation that the paid membership has started. Maybe when the site is more stable.

When I entered my code I received a pop up on my 360 confirming my subscription to elite. I was also sent an e-mail confirming my subscription. If it makes any difference, I had downloaded Elite earlier in the day and entered my code prior to running the game.

@Law313 said:

@Krummey said:

@Hameyadea

So Elite is not so much of an elite service?

I don't get it.

@Fuga said:

@Jmangino: Are you stupid?

Hardly I think it's just hilarious people actually paid real american dollars for something that came out 3 years ago... you know you could have picked up Mw2 for cheaper..

@fargofallout said:

@onan

@fargofallout said:

I've never understood what the point is of offering chunks of such a service for free. You can only pay for this on a yearly basis, right? So giving you a free month is completely pointless because if you want to go beyond that, you still have to pony up the same amount.

I don't think you understood what they're doing. They're giving subscribers and extra 30 days, making their 12 month pre-paid subscription worth 13 months for the same price. That's hardly pointless. That's like netflix offering you a free month of streaming or something, or more realistically Xbox offering an extra month of Xbox Live in the event of a major outage for a few days.

Simply put: 13>12.

It isn't anything like a free month of Netflix because Elite is only a yearly subscription. If Netflix gave me a free month, I'd save that money since I pay monthly. If Elite gives you a free month, you still paid $50. It's a gesture that makes them look good, but they don't really lose any money, except possibly for people that would have paid up front, but use that free month to decide they don't want to pay.

They still miss out on revenue because they have to wait an extra 30 days to charge everyone's credit cards with those recurring subscription fees. Realistically the meat of the value is in the prepaid map packs, so I see what you're getting at, but they're also supposed to get enhanced statistical data or something.

@onan said:

@fargofallout said:

I've never understood what the point is of offering chunks of such a service for free. You can only pay for this on a yearly basis, right? So giving you a free month is completely pointless because if you want to go beyond that, you still have to pony up the same amount.

I don't think you understood what they're doing. They're giving subscribers and extra 30 days, making their 12 month pre-paid subscription worth 13 months for the same price. That's hardly pointless. That's like netflix offering you a free month of streaming or something, or more realistically Xbox offering an extra month of Xbox Live in the event of a major outage for a few days.

Simply put: 13>12.

That's hardly anything to scoff at, maybe if it was an xbox live subscription for another month I could see the value, but a free month of their elite service? Which I'm sure has nothing to do with dlc or map packs hardly seems like it's doing the users any favors.

I want to know where my dam title and emblem is and my camo for that matter

@ICryCauseImEmo: I paid $200 for a game that came out 10 years ago not but 3 months ago. I spent $1000 on a game that was released almost 20 years ago two years ago.

@darkdragonmage99 said:

@ICryCauseImEmo: I paid $200 for a game that came out 10 years ago not but 3 months ago. I spent $1000 on a game that was released almost 20 years ago two years ago.

To each their own i'm jealous honestly. What games where they?

@ICryCauseImEmo said:

@darkdragonmage99 said:

@ICryCauseImEmo: I paid $200 for a game that came out 10 years ago not but 3 months ago. I spent $1000 on a game that was released almost 20 years ago two years ago.

To each their own i'm jealous honestly. What games where they?

Yeah I'm jealous I don't have money like that to waste :(

@ICryCauseImEmo brand new factory sealed Persona 2 It wasn't an easy game to find. Oh and the really expesive one was a neo geo game I'd have to go dig it out to even know what one it was I have them all labeled with how much I paid and when I bought them. I'm a collector all my xtra money goes into games.

By the way WM3 is not the same game as WM2 if you'd play it you'd know this instead of bitching from afair because the game looks the same grafics are not everything and they are not gonna get much better at 60 fps on curant consoles.

@ICryCauseImEmo: I paid $200 for a game that came out 10 years ago not but 3 months ago. I spent $1000 on a game that was released almost 20 years ago two years ago.

You sound like a douche....just saying.

@darkdragonmage99 said:

@ICryCauseImEmo brand new factory sealed Persona 2 It wasn't an easy game to find. Oh and the really expesive one was a neo geo game I'd have to go dig it out to even know what one it was I have them all labeled with how much I paid and when I bought them. I'm a collector all my xtra money goes into games.

By the way WM3 is not the same game as WM2 if you'd play it you'd know this instead of bitching from afair because the game looks the same grafics are not everything and they are not gonna get much better at 60 fps on curant consoles.

It's pretty much the same damn game, that being said I bought it and elite because I like the series. Just because you like something doesn't mean you have to ignore it's faults.

On another note, let me help you out; it's clear spelling and literacy are not your strong suite (don't worry, we all have our weaknesses).

What @darkdragonmage99 meant to say:

By the way MW3 is not the same game as MW3, if you would have played it you would know this and not be bitching from afar.Just because the game looks the same, does not mean it is.Graphics are not everything. Also, they are not going to get much better at 60fps on current consoles.

You can thank me later ;-)

@TannerSmith: I'm dyslexic and have extreme problems with reading and writing thanks for pointing out something I have no control over asshole.

Other then the fact your still running around killing people with modern guns earning kill streaks how is it the same game ? That is the hallmark of the series they aren't likely to change it and turn it into a RTS or something.

@darkdragonmage99 said:

@ICryCauseImEmo brand new factory sealed Persona 2 It wasn't an easy game to find. Oh and the really expesive one was a neo geo game I'd have to go dig it out to even know what one it was I have them all labeled with how much I paid and when I bought them. I'm a collector all my xtra money goes into games.

By the way WM3 is not the same game as WM2 if you'd play it you'd know this instead of bitching from afair because the game looks the same grafics are not everything and they are not gonna get much better at 60 fps on curant consoles.

If the game looks the same, plays the same, does it not make it the same? Come on man I'm not saying the game is bad I'm just saying you've already played it 3 years ago when MW2 came out.

@ICryCauseImEmo: It looks the same because they can't really improve the graphics and keep it at 60 frames a second battlefield 3 looks great but it runs at 30 frames so does just about every good looking game lately. Current gen consoles just can't handle any more at this point. It's plays the same in the sense it is still a shooter with perks and kill streaks but they re-balanced everything new guns new maps new perks and way new kill streaks. It plays quite a bit different in a real sense because of those changes. It's a shooter they can't really change that fact just like Skyrim is still just a massive open world game with all that entails. The developers can't escape the basics of the genre they are working in.

@darkdragonmage99 said:

@TannerSmith: I'm dyslexic and have extreme problems with reading and writing thanks for pointing out something I have no control over asshole.

Other then the fact your still running around killing people with modern guns earning kill streaks how is it the same game ? That is the hallmark of the series they aren't likely to change it and turn it into a RTS or something.

That wasn't exactly the 'Thank you' I was expecting, but you are welcome :-)

I don't know how to answer your second statement, you kinda proved my point. If they would have made it an RTS it would be something different. However, like you said, there is no way they would do that and if they did it would be a mistake because this game sells....well....EXTREMELY WELL.

@TannerSmith: So you just admitted your complaint is not a flaw it's a strength it sticks to the basics of the series and improves on them it's what sequels are suppose to do. It's not just the basics of the series at this point either. It's the basics of the genre as a whole they can't escape the fact it's a shooter without making it not a shooter.

@random_guy23:

game works fine on ps3 for me.

although it isn't really impressive.

glad i didn't buy it myself.

spec ops are cool in splitscreen though

@Hitchenson said:

@yoshimitz707 said:

Skyrim

This is correct.

Me I add Saints Row the Third to this correctness ?