Call of Duty Elite to bring monthly subscription service to multiplayer

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The trailer above confirms the long-rumoured Call of Duty premium subscription service. Call of Duty Elite is set to launch alongside Modern Warfare 3. It will add social networking features like Facebook integration, video sharing, friends lists, groups, competitive leaderboards and more to Call of Duty's multiplayer. Some of these features, like the Facebook integration, will be free, others will require a monthly subscription fee. Activision haven't announced which features will be paid-for just yet, and the amount of the monthly fee hasn't been decided either. Activision insist that players won't be forced to pay to play online.

The video above shows off a few of the new features, including peformance tracking software that shows players their effectiveness with each weapon on each map. Call of Duty Elite will go live with Modern Warfare 3, and will be be backwards compatible with Call of Duty: Black Ops. The Wall Street Journal report that new multiplayer maps could be released as part of the service as well.

VP of Call of Duty digital, Jamie Berger told the Wall Street Journal that seven million people play Call of Duty online for an average of seven whole days a year, which means a monthly sub could potentially make bazillions for Activision, if players are prepared to pay, that is. Would you pay a subscription fee for Call of Duty?

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.