Call of Duty Elite priced at $50 annually; MW3 'Hardened' edition includes one year

Though a slew of content is available for free for all users that sign up for Call of Duty Elite, a premium service will be offered for an annual price of $49.99. Additionally, Activision has announced one year of the service will come bundled with the ga

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During a press event at the Call of Duty XP venue last night, Activision revealed the pricing structure for Call of Duty Elite, a supplemental service tied to the popular shooter franchise.

Though a slew of content is available for free for all users that sign up for Elite, a premium service will be offered for an annual price of $49.99. Additionally, Activision revealed that one year of Elite service will come bundled with the Hardened Edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 when it launches on November 8 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Features like Facebook integration, stat and map tracking, group interaction, and clan support are included with Elite's free service on the Elite website, as well as on upcoming mobile applications for iOS and Android-based platforms. Modern Warfare 3 also includes Elite features, allowing players to look at their stats and heat maps in more detailed ways than are available in current iterations of the franchise.

For $49.99 per year, users will receive the following perks:

  • All DLC will be made available to Elite members during the time of active subscription, meaning, when new content is offered, Elite subscribers will get it all without having to pay additional fees.

  • DLC will also be staggered for more frequent releases, specifically, it will be broken into chunks of 20 pieces arriving monthly in pieces and will include everything from maps to modes and Spec Ops missions. Non-premium Elite members must wait for full DLC releases which will happen less frequently, but still offer the same content at an additional price.

  • Though clan support is offered free, Elite clans will have a progression system akin to player progression. This means that players in clans level up their clan over time and can join tournaments.

  • Free Elite members get a limited number of slots for published video and screenshots on their profile, Elite members get 8X more video capacity.

  • Elite members can access strategy and analysis content from Call of Duty pros

A more detailed list of the perks can be found in our previous coverage on the service.

With at least four DLC drops for each of the past recent Call of Duty drops, the access to DLC seems to make the $50 price worth it alone. Purchasing each Modern Warfare 3 map pack, which will be priced at $15 per pack with four planned DLC drops (as detailed during yesterday's event) would cost users an additional $60. That's an immediate $10 savings without considering the additional bonuses.

On top of that, one year of Elite service comes with the Hardened Edition. If that package is priced at $80, as it historically has, then users will receive one year of DLC for the price of just over one standard DLC release.

The news also further sweetens the deal at the first annual CoD event. All Call of Duty XP attendees will receive a voucher to obtain a free 'Hardened' edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Proceeds from the event will be used as part of Activision's charitable efforts to help veteran soldiers find work after heroically serving their country.

Some questions linger, however. For example, since DLC for Elite users is more frequent and staggered, how will Microsoft's timed-exclusivity affect the premium service for users on the PC and PS3?

Shacknews has an interview with Activision later today and will try to clarify some of the unanswered questions.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 2, 2011 1:00 PM

    Xav de Matos posted a new article, Call of Duty Elite priced at $50 annually; MW3 'Hardened' edition includes one year.

    Though a slew of content is available for free for all users that sign up for Call of Duty Elite, a premium service will be offered for an annual price of $49.99. Additionally, Activision has announced one year of the service will come bundled with the ga

    • reply
      September 2, 2011 1:03 PM

      Grant and benjamined is the new nickle and dimed.

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      September 2, 2011 1:05 PM

      so its similar to the season pass they did for sports games and mortal kombat?

      I like the idea of getting DLC early and spread out over a consistent basis, but I would assume you no longer keep it if your sub runs out? I would probably rather know that I own that DLC for "life" then save $10 on it

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        September 2, 2011 1:09 PM

        but reading it again its not completely clear if you keep it after your sub runs out. Can you comment to that Xav?

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          September 3, 2011 11:57 AM

          They have not clarified. We asked a few questions regarding Elite and they were unable to provide answers at this time. They are still working out details.

    • reply
      September 2, 2011 1:06 PM

      I can see myself paying the $50 to hear Will Arnett and Jason Bateman talking shit about players.

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      September 2, 2011 1:28 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 2, 2011 1:49 PM

      Fuck you too Activision, ill stick with BF3 and RO2

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        September 2, 2011 1:53 PM

        hahahaha because EA is much better about DLC

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      September 2, 2011 2:28 PM

      Although it's an interesting 'perk' to the game... I can't see why anyone would actually pay $50 for this...

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      September 2, 2011 2:34 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 2, 2011 3:18 PM

        Ha! Well, it's based on when you redeem it, I think. Redeem it the day before the first DLC drop.

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      September 2, 2011 2:58 PM

      i dont see what the problem is. how many DLC packs did treyarch put out for black ops? if you paid 50 bucks up front to get them all insteead of the 15 per pack you paid there are some savings to be had.

      it's all in the article

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        September 2, 2011 3:00 PM

        even better deal if you just buy the hardened edition of the game, assuming its only 30 bucks more like it has been in the past

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      September 2, 2011 3:50 PM

      Now even if the game is terrible and dies before they get the last DLC out you've still bought it all :D

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      September 2, 2011 7:12 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 2, 2011 8:07 PM

        This was my first thought too. After thinking about it for a sec, there are a lot of players that take the game very seriously and would enjoy this. So, while I'm not interested, there may be a hardcore group of people that are all over it. As long as they don't take away anything from people who don't want to pony up the extra dough, I don't see anything wrong with it.

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      September 2, 2011 8:10 PM

      I wonder when the MW F2P model comes out.

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      September 2, 2011 8:14 PM

      mmmeh

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