E3: Call of Duty Elite

[Shamanic Rhythm]

What I don't understand is why the cadence to every press release Activision does about Elite is 'Don't worry, most of the important stuff will be free'. How exactly is this helping to SELL the product to people? I think if you're going to charge someone 8 bucks a month, you should be talking about how you're giving them value for that money, not saying 'most of it is free, so what you're paying for is essentially superfluous crap'.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

EVERY MORNING, THIS ONLINE FEATURE IS HANGING FROM THE CORNER OF MY HALO'S FOUR-POST BED!

Cookie for the reference.

But I can't comment, asides that it's going to be easier for peopel to be obsessed with COD.

 

[XT inc]

What more needs to be said, other than Bungie does this for free and everything else they offer is also done for free. Unless they took out clans and set it aside for elite users only they aren't going anywhere.

You want groups join one on facebook, it's free and if you don't have facebook then why would the first social media you experience be a pay for call of duty one? You want tips from the pro's or tips from anyone go to youtube.

To be honest I've seen heat maps they do nothing for me, they let you know where you kill and get killed and you should know that from playing, why do I get killed by the open bridge, overlooked by 30 positions so much?

But I will congratulate them in advance for the profits they will reap because we all know none of what I say makes sense and you should pay a corporate juggernaut extra because it costs them soooo much to pull fanservice. Where by the consumers logic is we like it we should pay more and the companies logic is they like it they should pay more.

 

[TheTurtleMan]

It seems like Call of Duty and Activision have been playing catchup to games like Halo and Bungie in terms of game features and bonuses. I mean this is basically a more specified Bungie.net and even that one thing on Xbox live called Halo something where you can look at community stuff and videos. They did the same thing with video mode in Black Ops, which wasn't even as good as the film mode in Halo 3 or Reach.

It wouldn't shock me to see a Call of Duty forge feature coming out in the next release as well.

 

[Ian Nelson]

I still find it amusing that activision is still pushing a pay service (yeah I know most of it will be free) when dice is blowing people away with game footage

That's why BF3 > MW3. They didn't even upgrade the game engine did they? (for MW3) it looks like the same game but with new levels and new gun skins/sounds. DICE has Frosbite 2 which is absolutely beautiful.

The problem with that sad truth is most CoD fanboys won't even care. At the mention of BF3 they will shun any other game with ignorance for it does not state "Call of Duty" at the top. They don't even try anymore, I swear. It truly saddens me. If Battlefield 3 does not rock the world of gaming and rip away most of CoD fans, I will throw my xbox out the window.

 

[Still Life]

It truly saddens me. If Battlefield 3 does not rock the world of gaming and rip away most of CoD fans, I will throw my xbox out the window.

I'm going to hold you to that

I haven't been impressed by what has been offered by Elite, yet I am not a hardcore COD fan. I'm interested to see what 'benefits' that Activision will offer with the subscription fee.

 

[Artemis923]

I'll pay for Elite when Xbox Live Gold is free, and not a moment sooner.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

So far, Elite just seems like an overly verbose way for Call of Duty to catch up with features offered by competitors. Not telling us what we will have to pay for (those who don't ignore CoD completely going forward) makes me think they're trying to leave some niggling doubt that the service might be worth the money before they reveal it's true cash-grab nature, thereby softening the blow.

Don't be suckered in. I've seen this more times then I care to recall. When a developer says, "Hey buddy, just take my word for it!" you can bet your bottom dollar they're trying to escape the obvious reaction to their bullshit.

 

[Frotality]

okay, activision seriously needs to quit with video games and dedicate its efforts to continuing the scientific pursuits of B.F Skinner; these people have clearly taken the idea of operant conditioning to unbelievable levels of complexity with Elite. i dont even care about k/d ratios, yet they have crafted a service explaining your entire online history in minute detail that im sure will prove quite popular. clearly i have underestimated their ability to make competitive multiplayer crack-tastically addicting to so many people; professional sports players arent this OCD about their stats.

seriously people, are we going to start fantasy football-esque leagues for CoD's top players next?! when will it end?!?!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Activision CEO speaking about Elite and MW3.

Skip to the 4 minute mark to hear about Elite, and which parts are free/may be pay-per use.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Really Activision?
So you're giving us stuff which is in Blops, Bungie and Guerilla and you're going to charge us for it?

Seriously?
No. That's not cool. Guerilla and Bungie have been doing this for a hell of a long time. Try doing something good like changing the actual game, maybe moving it forward and not just rehashing MW2. Sorry but I'm out, no way am I buying this unless it turns out to be amazing which is a laughable concept.

It's pathetic, it really is, they're acting like they're so innovative and clever when it's all been done and given to us for free before. Fuck you activision.

 

[Lacsapix]

I'll pay for Elite when Xbox Live Gold is free, and not a moment sooner.

Now that is a statement that wins this discussion!
Its still ridiculous that you need to pay for online gaming on Xbox.

you'll need to pay for internet...
you'll need to pay for Xbox live
you'll need to pay for Cod Elite.

microsoft and activision should really stop using those emotion-simulators that run on money.

 

[mattaui]

I have to wonder how many people complaining are even CoD players? I mean, if you don't like the game, then more granular stats for the game aren't going to do much for you. I barely use the stats they already give me in Codblops so more of that isn't going to really do a lot for me, either. This seems like something they're offering to people already part of the game, not something particularly focused at attracting new customers.

Makes me wonder when we'll see World of Warcraft Elite with similar sorts of stats for boss fights, PvP and the like. There are already lots of different third party sites that parse combat logs if you're running the right mods.

 

[Frostbite3789]

funny thig is i'm excited for this, why? because i don't play halo, i don't like it so you know what? i cant complain if cod wants to do this, i won't pay, i can get by with just the stat-tracking, which seems to be free as or right now, and this looks like fun so to all the whines please this is not bad, it's something new to cod and i want to see their spin on it, it could be better than anything thats out now, we have to wait and see first.

No, it is bad. It's testing the waters. It's a "Lets see how much money we can squeeze out of these people before they say no" ploy. And you're falling for it.

 

[ColdFire75]

I love that DICE have now said BF3 will also have all this...
But free! =P

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

So it's like Halo 3's free online support, but instead of replays it just tells you what happens and you get auto-tagged on youtube videos?

I'll take fifty!

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Its like Reach's system, only a bit more and you have to pay for it.

Personally I won't get it, but I respect them for at least not making me pay to play actual CoD gameplay.

It's free, it's only tiny things you have to purchase.


Man, that doesn't look to bad, and it's the perfect way to spend an RE lesson!

 

[shintakie10]

The blind Activision hate from people who clearly didn't read the article has gone beyond stupid to seriously f'in retarded. There has to be some sort of rule about sayin pointless bullcrap that has absolutely no bearin in reality...please?

Pretty interestin actually. I wouldn't really need the system since I rarely actually look at statistics like that (its why I absolutely fail miserably at Fate of the World), but I do know several people who would eat up a system like this for breakfast. Well...actually they'd prolly print stuff out and read it durin breakfast, then lunch...then dinner.

I am still waitin to hear what the actual pay for stuff is though even if only so people actually have somethin to ***** about instead of makin things up.

 

[Awexsome]

I can't condemn it right now because although yes, Bungie.net already has been doing this at an equal or better level of quality... All the stat tracking and stuff being compared to B.net is free thus far.

We'll have to wait and see how "free" it stays but so far it doesn't look like ALL of it's just a massive cash grab. Yet.

 

[zeekita]

I don't think its unusual or unreasonable to expect a subscription fee for premium services in a social networking utility. It appears as though nobody will be disadvantaged if they do not purchase the elite premium services.
Would it be not be unreasonable to compare it to something like Reddit Gold?..