So there's been a lot of bitching about, how Call of Duty Elite would make users pay for, what other game companies offered for free, you know comprehensive stat tracking and stuff like that, well guess what? That will be free with Call of Duty Elite. Yes that's right, Activision is actually offering free stuff? Start making jokes about flying pigs, and hell freezing over. But what will you exactly be getting for free?

Elite in and of itself will be a free service. Activision says Elite will be the "best free service on the market" because it offers "more features than any other service out there. Additionally, many of Elite's free features which will debut with Modern Warfare 3 are industry firsts and offer a new level of innovation." Below is the list of features listed as being free to all users. More questions are answered in the FAQ

• Access Elite through the web as well as Elite's free custom iOS and Android applications for smartphones and tablets

• Communicate any way you want across mobile, console and the web with your friends

• Track and share thousands of stats with friends -- k/d ratios, score-per-minute, win % and loads more, all represented in easy to understand charts and infographics

• Create your own custom leaderboards to track friendly rivalries -- who is moving up and down in your group of friends?

• Analyze advanced heat maps detailing your match-by-match performance -- where you killed or got killed, when it happened, and more

• Analyze your weapons performance -- which weapons you are best with in which situations

• Upload and share videos of your greatest moments through our exclusive theater mode with the touch of a button

• After you analyze your performance to your heart's content - Customize your loadout -- search through all the weapons, attachments and perks, and push them directly into the game menu from the web or your mobile device with the touch of a button

• Join dozens of groups and find other players with common interests to play with and compete against -- find people who make the game the most fun for you -- TDM, Lakers' fans, Weekend Warriors, whatever you choose.

• Create a private Clan with players who share your interests and skill level

• Bring your Facebook friends right into the game, easily taking your existing network into the Call of Duty experience.

• Seamlessly be placed into matches into Groups who share your affinities and interests based on your Facebook profile to elevate your in-game experience.

• Start tracking your Call of Duty career -- everything you wanted to know about your performance across the franchise starting with Black Ops

- Source: 1up http://www.1up.com/news/what-call-of-duty-elite-offers-free

Still, it's not clear what you will be paying for, nor how much you will be paying for it, but this is pretty cool.

So, to all of you people who hates Call of Duty, Activision and Bobby Kotick (I understand most of your complaints, really I do) I ask of you, please, PLEASE, don't start hating before you get all the facts, and when you do, hate/complain for the right reasons.

if you don't think this was a response to BF3's recent statement that all that shit would be free I don't know what to tell ya

Good on them. Wonder what will be paid features then. Maybe they'll erase that promotional video from your memory.

@Slaker117 said:

Good on them. Wonder what will be paid features then. Maybe they'll erase that promotional video from your memory.

There's something about it in the article

Everyone, Elite subscriber or not, will be able to purchase downloadable content just as you've been able to in previous games. If you do opt to pay the as-of-yet unannounced monthly fee, you'll get all of the "playable game DLC" for Modern Warfare 3 free of charge. That includes any map packs, though it's unclear if the way that's phrased -- "playable game DLC" -- means there might be some sort of non-playable DLC that even Elite subscribers will have to pay for, or if it's simply a strangely-worded statement. (It could simply mean things like avatars and themes for PSN and Xbox Live.) Another feature already announced for subscribers is a Call of Duty-themed.

It sounds really weird to be honest.

You can do most of that with CS/Steam, minus the Facebook(thankfully).

They can still kiss my ass.  Things like this bother me to no end.  I spend $60 on a game and then usually a couple of map packs and they still want to nickel and dime me to death.  I would have probably gotten Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield both but I won't be getting Modern Warfare 3 after I found out about this.  Trust me this is not Kotick's end plan for this and I will bet you money they are planning on expanding what you pay extra for and if you support it then be aware of it.  

It sounds as if not even Activision know what they are offering here...

@Laketown said:

if you don't think this was a response to BF3's recent statement that all that shit would be free I don't know what to tell ya

Jeff talked about this on Tuesdays podcast, i.e. before that BF3 announcement.

This doesn't seem much outside of what Bungie already offers with Halo stat tracking for free already.  Why is this a surprise? 
 
I'm officially squaring this away into "wait and see" territory.  We'll see how it plays out.  If they're offering all this for free, what are they going to offer that would make people want to pay?

Obviously, they hope to make money with this thing. So if they don't offer enough for subscribers to jump on board I suspect they will start moving more and more from the "free" category to the "pay" category.

@JacDG: Offering a paid subscription service like this, for any features, is bad. Maybe they're offering something you think is cool, but I really don't want to see this become a trend. When people consider this acceptable, we'll start seeing more and more games copy it and more and more features stripped out to be offered only to premium members.

It's not a prospect I like, and it's not something I'm going to get behind under any circumstance.. and besides one or two things, this seems no different from what Bungie do for Halo on their website for free or what was just announced for Battlefield.