Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC begins late January

Of course Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was going to get its own share of downloadable content. And, if you're paying for Call of Duty Elite on Xbox 360, you can expect the first expansion to arrive in late January.

So what will be on offer? Thankfully, more than what the series has had to offer before. "We're doing more than just maps," Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling said in a promotional video. "We're going to do Spec Ops missions and a variety of things that players have never seen before." Update: The first image of the upcoming DLC showcases a map called "Park."

"That's the great thing about having three developers that are contributing to the season of content. You have Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven all pitching in," he added in a promotional video released to Call of Duty Elite subscribers.

The release strategy for this year's "season of content" will be a bit confusing, as there are multiple layers of exclusivity at play. As before, Xbox Live members will have first access to the content. However, the DLC will only be available for Call of Duty Elite paid subscribers at first. That means if you want to get your hands on the content as soon as it's live, you'll need both a paid Xbox Live and Call of Duty Elite subscription. How the release schedule will work with other configurations--such as a PS3 owner with a paid Elite subscription, or a PC owner that has no access to Elite (Elite is unavailable on the PC platform)--is unclear at the moment.

If you do have the right combination of subscriptions demanded by Activision, you'll be able to dive into the first Modern Warfare 3 DLC on January 24th. Everyone else will have to wait for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time.