Call of Duty Elite - a new social gaming service for CoD fans - will release alongside Modern Warfare 3 later this year.
The launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 later this year will no doubt shift the Earth's rotation off its axis and usher in a new dark of evil (and trash-talking thirteen year olds). It's also going to mark the launch of a new dedicated social network for CoD players - Call of Duty Elite.
The Elite service will offer friend-based matchmaking, an integrated clan infrastructure, and full performance tracking both in-game and online. Competitive play will also be supported, matching players of similar skill levels and even offering a range of prizes; there'll even be dynamic strategy guides and other player coaching functions.
"The average Call of Duty player spends 58 minutes per day playing multiplayer. That is more than the average Facebook user spends per day on Facebook. And yet, right now, there are very few tools to unite and super charge that social community," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in today's release. "Whether it's allowing you to connect with your friends, or people of a similar skill level, people who live in your city, people who share your favourite passions, join competitive clans or social groups, or upload, view and comment on the incredible mass of player-generated content, or watch and comment on exclusive created content, Call of Duty Elite will give people more ways to connect with fellow players than ever before. Elite will also allow players of every level to improve their game with an intuitive suite of tools, and compete in tournaments for both real and virtual prizes."
The very interesting thing, however, is that while the bulk of the service will be free, there will also be a premium version. According to the release, premium membership will offer "a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market".
We can only wonder what that game content will be. We've asked, but it looks like there'll be more info on this at E3 - good thing we'll be there next week. For now, though, check out our gallery of Elite screenshots.
So what do the CoD players out there think?
Issue: 137 | June, 2012