Call of Duty Elite

[[mXm] kotaco]

To put aside any fears, we would like to point out that this service is not going to be required to play Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, or any other future titles online. This is merely an optional subscription giving you access to the "Elite" bonus content, so worry not about paying to play.

Coming this fall, Activision is putting out the Call of Duty: Elite subscription service which will release alongside the next major game in the franchise, Modern Warfare 3. Kotaku reported that there will be a free version of Elite coming as well.

There will be a beta this summer for the service before it's official launch. The Elite service will allow players to track stats, join groups, view maps and even compete for real and online (fake/virtual) prizes. So basically everything that other games do as far as tracking stats but you're paying for it. You can expect to see this service making the push on all the COD games form Black Ops and beyond.

"Elite will be available in two tiers of service, one for paying and one for non-paying Call of Duty multiplayer fanatics. While all of the perks of membership are yet to be announced, that paying group may never have to pay for a Call of Duty map pack separately again." - Kotaku

Beachead Studios, the developers dedicated solely to developing and supporting COD: Elite have made the claim that this service will out perform any comparable service of it's kind. Possibly a reference to the Bungie stat tracking service for Halo, or the recently released SOCOM 4 stat trackers. The service will come complete with it's own smartphone apps for Android and iPhone too for those of you who are that completely obsessed with your stats..

What exactly will be free and what will be a part of the subscription is not yet clear at this time. VP of Activision, Jamie Berger, told Kotaku that "a premium Elite membership will give subscribers a constant flow of Call of Duty content, including map packs, which have previously been available a la carte. Berger stressed that anyone who strictly buys a CoD game and doesn't pay for Elite can expect campaign, co-op and multiplayer "for no extra charge." He didn't elaborate on why someone would opt for the premium Elite offering of CoD map packs and other downloadable content, though one could imagine that those premium Elite members might get access to such added content early or at a bulk discount."

Kotaku also posted some more features they saw during a demo, we posted what we thought were the three most unique or worthwhile features to save you some time:
[*]The level calculator. It will allow players to input the number of hours of CoD they play each day in order to have the calculator tell them how many days it will take them to Prestige, aka reach the multiplayer mode's top rank before cycling to the lowest rank and starting the climb again. [*]Advanced theater interaction willl automatically tag all of the players who are seen in each video, so essentially if somebody makes a video of them owning you, you'll be notified so you can enjoy it too. [*]A Program Guide in the Events page will list upcoming challenges. Some challenges will involve uploading videos or screenshots that meet certain contest criteria. So-called Lone Wolf Operations will challenge players to perform certain one-off feats in multiplayer—say, a set number of kills in a game mode that day—and could, the Activision people who showed us Elite said, win a player anything from an in-game badge to a real Jeep.

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You can signup to possibly take part in the closed beta test this summer via the Elite website: http://www.callofduty.com/elite

And just for good measure, here's the Elite trailer once again: