There’s been a lot of talk about the recently unveiled Call of Duty Elite, Activision’s newest shot-in-the-arm to their annual shooter franchise. And frankly, most of it has been wrong. But with all the of the rumors of Activision charging for COD multiplayer, it’s not a huge surprise that many people jumped to that conclusion (no doubt helped by the title of the Wall Street Journal reveal). A lack of clear features and a set price, along with a very confusing reveal (Wall Street Journal, really?) all lead us to where we are now. Thankfully, Dan Amrich spent most of the day taking people’s questions on Twitter, trying to squash rumors before they took off. He provided some information about the upcoming service, and we’re going to go over some important bulletpoints.
What we know:
Call of Duty Elite is a service
Those are Dan’s own words. This is not a stand-alone game, it’s not a downloadable title. This is the name given to a set of features that will stretch across Black Ops, MW3 and presumably future COD titles. The best comparison would be Halo: Waypoint, but with more social-oriented features. Joining groups and clans (Aren’t they the same?), tracking special events, and sharing videos to YouTube and Facebook has been announced, and that will be possible with COD’s Theater Mode. More interesting is the stat-tracking, which could make John Nash cross-eyed. Everything is being tracked, from where you have a kill with a certain weapon map, to where you’re killed the most on each map. It looks to be very deep and rich system for stat junkies.
Dan points out they’re running a public beta over at http://www.callofduty.com/elite, so you can sign up and maybe try these features out for yourself.
There will be a premium version
Dan compares it to TV. You get the basic channels for free, but if you want HBO or Starz, you have to pay for it. And before you even ask….
This DOES NOT mean Activision is charging for COD multiplayer
This will have no effect on the current state of COD. Modern Warfare 3 will still cost $60 in a store (barring you buying the collectors edition that comes with an Apache). The only change they’re making is a very smart one. If you have the premium version of Elite, you get new DLC for free which makes sense since you’re already paying them. Also, there will not be any form of microtransactions for competitive benefits (this is precisely how he worded it, which leads me to believe there will be cosmetic downloads).
There’s more information on Dan’s blog, which he’ll keep updated to bit.ly/codelite (he’s awesome with links like that.) But let’s get the important part of this article:
What I think (Warning: Rant)
Halo has had similar social/stat tracking features and I was always confused that they were the only shooter to have such features. (Other games have them, but not to the same level.) I think that part of it will be very popular if it’s part of the basic package. While they didn’t announce what features were part of which version (Dan has said that it isn’t even decided internally yet), there are some features that are obvious where they will end up. Remember this is my own speculation.
The Free package will have to consist of basic stat tracking (weapon kills, deaths, xp gained) and basic social features (groups, clans, social calender). I think they also include the ability to view and rate community videos. If they want that feature to be popular, they need to let the masses at least see them.
Now the Premium version is, as it usually is, the upgraded version of the Free. There will be more advanced stat tracking (tips to play better, kills/death locations on maps, maybe maps entirely) and advanced social features (upload/edit videos, create clans, special events.)
I think a lot of people are saying that this is just a ploy by Activision to get more money from gamers. To those people I say, “Where the hell were you when they were charging $15 for a map Pack?” Activision has been figuring out how to get more money from gamers for years. That’s what killed Guitar Hero, that’s what may one day kill Call of Duty. Bobby Kotick runs Activision as a business, and as a business it’s succeeding better than every other company. And as much as I disagree with it, it’s effective for one reason: there’s million of players that go along with it. If the $15 map packs didn’t sell, they wouldn’t keep doing them. While most gamers may not sign up for the premium version of Elite, if even a million do, that’s millions every month on top of game sales and DLC. They’re taking a play from Blizzard and charging for extra features (It worked so well in WoW). And honestly, none of this will even affect me, since I’ll be too busy playing Battlefield 3.
I think that CoD: Elite is an absolute waste of a monthly payment. OK lets say just for fun that its $8 per month. How many map packs are planning on being released to make that well worth it? My intuition.. not that many. Oh but wait, its being integrated with Facebook, comes with more stat tracking and guides.. OH JOY. not. The map packs are what $15-$20?
Lets use Black Ops as a demonstration. That was released on November 9, 2010 (or there abouts). So assuming that this “premium” service was active then, players paying for the service would have coughed about $65 just for stats and guides until first strike was released.
For those of us who didn’t (and probably wont pay for it) we enjoyed playing the game for free, waited till the map pack came out and just paid the simple $15 (or w/e it costs) to buy it. In the long run, might as well just scrap the whole idea and keep CoD free like it has been.
I don’t see Elite being as big a hit as Activision is hoping that it will be. OH joy we can win badges as digital prizes.. gay.. oh wait I MIGHT be able to win a Jeep irl from a contest.. gay. Oh so making clans or forming groups is gonna be easier.. who cares? that’s what friends are for. I figured it out the selling point is Facebook…
Clearly they haven’t really sat down and thought of what to offer that really makes Elite pop, because what they have so far.. sucks.
I agree about the map packs bit. If they don’t offer something substantial besides “free” map packs, I would rather just buy the map packs when released. The stat tracking is a nice touch since the Halo fans seem to enjoy it. We will have to wait and see what they decide to put behind the pay wall to make it worth it to subscribe
I agree with most of your points. I don’t see the value in it now, but I’m not as quick to right it off as useless as other people. And I do have problems with a couple things you said.
1) If you don’t want this, you don’t have to use it. It won’t raise the cost of the game, nor will it affect your game.
2) If you had read the blog I linked to in my article, you would have read that they’ve been developing this for about two years already. This isn’t something they threw together yesterday and slapped a price tag on.
3) I really dislike when gamers get down on a company for trying something new. I think this is an interesting step in a new direction for the COD series and Activision as a whole. Will it be successful? We won’t know until they get all the details ironed out and release it and people vote with their wallets.
4) Your comment on “Digital badges”: Have you seen how many use Foursquare/Gowalla/GetGlue and any number of services like that? People love having something to brag to their friends about, even more so in gaming, especially in shooters. There are people that are going to eat this up.
And I’m not gonna number this because this is a personal thing, but please don’t use “gay” in that fashion on any of my posts. I find it really offensive and would prefer if you didn’t do that. Thanks. (/rant).
I get the point that you can play either way, its just a way for Activision to squeeze even more money out pf its already loyal gamers. You can’t tell me that they’re hurting that bad for money that they have to even consider putting a monthly fee on stupid things like stat tracking or a map that shows you where you die the most.
All in all, I think that this is a terrible business move for them, they should leave well enough alone, I already know a ton of ppl that wont be on board the boat to buy this junk, because from everything I’ve read, that’s what it is.
0_o