By all accounts, Activision hit a home run with the introduction of Call of Duty Elite, its online stat-tracking/interactive service for the eponymous first-person shooter franchise. Offering $50 annual premium memberships to access year-round Call of Duty DLC and fancier community features, the publisher declared all the way back in May that Elite had amassed over 2 million subscribers - only months after launching with last November’s Modern Warfare 3.
But what looked to be a long-term revenue source for the company has now come to an abrupt, somewhat surprising restructuring. Activision announced today that the all features of service are going free - no memberships, no expenses - when Call of Duty Black Ops II releases on November 18. The only caveat is that DLC will be sold separately - a plan the company also outlined - but the move, according to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, is aimed at bolstering enjoyment across the entire Call of Duty community:
In lieu of paid memberships, Black Ops II will be adopting the popular Season Pass structure for DLC. Releasing on Xbox Live first, four packs, delivering content across Black Ops II’s multiplayer and Zombies modes, will be offered through the pass at a price of $49.99 (4000 Microsoft Points), an expected $10 savings (each DLC will release individually at $15). Unsurprisingly, the Season Pass is already available for pre-order at GameStop.
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Though its defining appeal might have been monthly infusions of downloadable “content drops,” a paid premium membership to Call of Duty Elite unlocked some of service’s more elaborate interactive features, such as clan leveling, strategy guides, daily prize-fueled competitions; and the satisfying but slightly-too-ambitious-at-the-start Elite TV. All of those features look to return as the buttresses of Black Ops II, and Activision released a new Elite trailer (above) and some official press details (below) to tease their new improvements:
One thing not yet clarified is how Activision hopes to handle current premium memberships; the eager Black Ops II fan who purchased a full year yesterday might like to know. Essentially, any outstanding memberships will be devoid of value once Elite goes 100% free, and so what now seems to have been a yearlong pricing experiment might threaten the company’s good standing if they can’t offer some level of reimbursement to, well, anyone who made the purchase a week after Elite’s launch.
Ranters, what are your thoughts on the new and (hopefully) improved Call of Duty Elite? Why do think Activision nixed the premium memberships? Could they have felt that free, full access to Elite would breed even more hardcore Call of Duty fans?
Call of Duty: Black Ops II releases on November 13, 2012 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and November 18th for the Wii U.
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