On the Mashcast, I know Jarret and Rob have touched upon this item lightly. I have also scoped out feedback from the community of online players from various sites. For those of you who want a crash course on Call of Duty Elite, here goes: it’s a community service for the Call of Duty franchise games that has both free and premium level services for basic stat tracking and social networking. The $50 per year premium service (which is free with Hardened Editions of the upcoming MW3) gives the subscriber access to all of the DLC maps during the subscription period, premium clan functions, and more future features for the “elite” Call of Duty fanatic. While the program will be available for console gamers, PC players seem to be excluded at the moment from joining the Elite service. Some would say that Activision is predisposed to having no love for the PC side of gaming.
I have seen some opinions online saying that Call of Duty Elite seems to target those who have bought all of the Black Ops map packs. The total sum of buying all CoD:BO map packs is forty-five dollars, which would make a “complete” purchase of all the Black Ops content over a hundred dollars – and that isn’t including anyone who bought the Hardened or Prestige Editions. Activision claims that players want the service from spending an average of $76 on Call of Duty: Black Ops, but that only factors about to the purchase of Black Ops ($60) and just 1 map pack at fifteen dollars. The casual Call of Duty fan isn’t going to willingly fork over a hundred dollars for a single game. Some gamers online have expressed concerns that Elite will cause a schism between players – a case of the haves versus the have-nots – all due to the price point and desire for the newest maps. Some gamers have even expressed concerns that it’s services like Elite that may inspire other other greedy companies to follow Activision’s lead should the program prove successful.
I personally feel that it the whole situation is a non-issue as casual CoD players will just stay the course while those more likely to purchase premium editions would be likely to enroll in CoD:Elite anyway. I am curious to know how our readers feel about Call of Duty Elite‘s premium service and their personal insights over the potential impact on the Call of Duty community (or gaming community as a whole). How do you (the reader) feel about Activision going on a hunch that Call of Duty players just buying an average of one map pack that the up-sell to a premium fifty dollar service is a great deal? Let us know your thoughts and maybe the guys from the Mashcast can pick up this topic while sharing any posted thoughts.
