Activision This is Why We Hate You: Call of Duty Elite

– May 31, 2011Posted in: Competitive Gaming, Gaming

I’m just going to say it, Call of Duty Elite is a scam…a ripoff…a waste of your money…DO NOT PURCHASE IT PLEASE! If you purchase “some of the features mentioned” in the service, you are doing nothing more than fulfilling Activision’s goal of milking the gaming industry for every possible dollar they can get. They’re continuing to push developers into ruining gaming franchises and running them into the ground. This Call of Duty Elite nonsense is just one more reason to add to my, “Why I hate Activision” list. I watched the “teaser” video which was introduced by Legend of Karl on the Machinima network yesterday and couldn’t help but ask myself; DIDN’T BUNGIE ALREADY DO THIS? The trailer, if you haven’t seen it, is below:

Connect

So now we’re Facebook. Let’s create some “groups” of Call of Duty enthusiasts or people that are in my “Alma Mater” or have some “Peanut Butter Allergies.” We don’t pay for Facebook, I’m not paying to connect with an online, Call of Duty exclusive, social network. This is, quite possibly, the most laughable portion of the service, but I’m sure some people are eating it up and can’t wait to create those “Groups.”

Compete

At 2:24 in the trailer video, Legend of Karl mentions creating clans and competing in ladders. Gamebattles offers the ability to create clans and compete in online ladders…for free. I’m not paying to compete online in a half-baked, social network hybrid that fails to innovate and mimics a service I already utilize. Reiteration — why in the world would I pay for a new service when one already exists, specializes in “clan creation” and “competing in ladders” for free? I’m sure there are some die hards that are going to love being able to unlock some virtual camo and skins on their weapons.

Hell, even if Call of Duty Elite offers a clan system built into the CoD franchise (think Battlefield Modern Combat) that is well thought out, organized and functional I wouldn’t buy into it. The fact still remains that it would be a feature I didn’t pay for on BF: MC and I wouldn’t pay for it on CoD Elite. Don’t charge me for something that I can play for free from a game 5 years old!

Improve

Based on most of the interface in the video, CoD Elite looks like nothing more than a near carbon copy of Bungie’s website stat and weapon tracking interface which was introduced — what 4 years ago? If you want to pay for some extra Bungie website/game interface there is Bungie Pro and their Theater Mode rendering service; a service you really don’t need to pay for unless you do not own a capture card device. Undoubtedly we’ll see carbon copy monetization practices from Infinity Ward and Treyarch with the Theater mode and rendering. What makes matters worse, based on some of the speculative talk, this is going to be a monthly service fee. I KNOW people are going to buy into these things, yet they are currently being implemented FOR FREE by services that already exist.

Bungie For Free

Access to personal stats
Detailed intel on maps
Detailed intel on weapons
“And More”

Halo Kill/Death Heat Map

CoD Elite Infrared Map

YouTube / Google Offer For Free

Ability to Search “X Strategy”
Ability to Search “X weapon gameplay”
Ability to Search “X map overview”
Ability to Search “X specific game tip”

Future of Games

I can only hope that a band of developers unite and bitch slap Activision. Infinity Ward did it once when nearly 40 of their employees sued them over unpaid royalties, ultimately leading to some of the staff leaving IW and creating a new studio. It was believed that Activision and Infinity Ward were in disagreement about the direction the Call of Duty franchise was taking, and nearly 2 years later we see a monthly subscription service, i.e. Call of Duty Elite sprout up? It’s clear their main agenda is not about pushing creative thinking, but to stifle innovation and finding outrageous ways to spend more of your money on ridiculous features and add-ons.

Clearly Call of Duty Elite is NOT an innovative feature; it is something that mimics a number of features (Facebook, Bungie, Gamebattles) already in existence. I know some of you will fall victim to this gimmick, but Activision/Treyarch/Sledgehammer/Infinity Ward know that I will never buy into this money grab.

coded by nessus

Contact Kerrington at kerrington@reflectzyn.com

About Kerrington

http://twitter.com/cragon_will Will Cragon

i completely agree with this. we all read pay for online, which i am fine with at the moment, now we have to pay for some bogus subscription that we don’t really need? I’m not paying for it and I feel sorry for people who do pay for it.
- http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
  
  It terribly upsets me that Activision tries to milk the industry so blatantly, with complete disregard on the innovative thinking that built the gaming industry in the first place. EA is equally as bad, but when I saw this I basically vomit and sh*t at the same time.
  
  It’s ridiculous!
http://twitter.com/SUP_SANGUK Sang

I mean Bungie offers most of these for free and activision is making us pay for this. Completely ridiculous. Like you said just go on youtube.
- Zro_spam
  
  So…since all your “assumptions” about the Elite service and what you get for free vs paid has been dispelled…what are you saying now?
  - http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
    
    What is being dispelled? The services it offers can be found at other popular locations for free. Aside from the DLC content, all my points remain valid.
ShadowzStrafe

£200+ for an xbox
£40 a year for LIVE
£45 for every new game
££ Whatever they’re going to charge for the subscription
Then the 1200 microsoft point DLC.
That not enough Activision? And on top of all that… Call of Duty sucks.
http://twitter.com/exever Ian K

seriously, they are bringing this in for 2012? shameful shit
- http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
  
  It’s actually going into Beta for Black Ops and will be available on it first!! Shameful indeed.
Chris Moesley

Ok, first of all, get your facts straight, every feature mentioned in the reveal will be offered for FREE. The paid service will be other things not mentioned yet, though I don’t know what they will be. Now, as for your ranting, you and other people of like mind have no one to blame but yourselves. It’s people like you that make me laugh…you complain about IW and Activision yet YOU STILL BUY THEIR STUFF, probably even pay for their DLC. If it wasn’t for you addicted drones gobbling up CoD EVERY YEAR, they probably wouldn’t have been upped the DLC price to $15 for a map pack…they probably wouldn’t moving into new avenues for monetizing the franchise, they would be happy with their hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. At the same time, way to bash a company for trying to make money…umm, its what companies do, they’re not your friend. They only do the bare minimum to keep the majority of their customers happy. If you really want to do something about this BEFORE it turns into full fledged PAY-TO-PLAY, dont buy it, or AT LEAST BUY IT USED
- http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
  
  Did you watch the video? Or even look at the picture I clearly took from the video? It says, “some of the Call of Duty features in VIDEO require a paid membership.” The article evaluates each of the “features” mentioned in the video, clearly showing that any of those possibilities are offered FREE elsewhere.
  - Chris Moesley
    
    My point is, you’re over reacting. This particular thing isn’t the CoD subscription service we’ve been worrying about, though, if this does well enough, I’m sure they will take the next step. There’s no point in getting mad now, people should have been mad when they started charging 15 for map packs which, when they broke records, started the idea of some sort of community thing which costs money. it’s a test to see how willing people are to shell out money everymonth.
    - http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
      
      I’m simply stating the reasons I wouldn’t pay for a monthly service that potentially offers features from websites that have the same features for free.
      
      My stance simply questions the idea of paying for something people can get elsewhere for free. It’s not like Call of Duty isn’t a billion dollar game, why try to extort more money out of consumers. More people should be concerned of the long-term implications of the service and the precedents it could set for other games.
      - Chris Moesley
        
        If you noticed, I agree with you. However, I don’t agree with the argument of “don’t they make enough money already?” That’s business and that’s America, nothing is ever enough. As much as I dislike the idea of being overcharged, in the end, it always come back to they’re in the business to make money first, satisfy fans second. Some companies tend to do things the other way around, however, bottom lines counts more than a few alienated fans. You’re getting all upset and focusing your anger on the wrong thing. You’re not required to buy this, most of it is free anyway, it won’t lead to some players having advantages over others (because come on, who really believes they can get better at a video game no matter how many stats they see?), its just plain putting the CoD label on something and waiting for, inevitably, a few million little kids to have their mommies pay for it so they can be, Elite…haha. My point is, we video gamers could have a very strong say in what the future holds for us if we were just able to pick our battles better. This is not really the product to rage over, if you want to send a message, take it out on their main money maker, their annual CoD release. If you want to take it a step further, don’t buy ANY Activision products (or at least buy them used, no one ever mentions that, its a viable alternative for someone who is addicted to CoD, you get the game, but Activision doesnt get your money). That’s all I’m saying. CoD Elite is nothing to get mad over, its stupid, offered for free elsewhere, and most people will realize that and not pay for it. However, with CoD, we’re talking about a user base of something like 30 million people give or take, so, even if only 10% pay for the service, that’s roughly 3 million people which will offer, most likely, a very high profit margin for CoD Elite.
      - Travis L.
        
        Chris I have too say that “too much money” is a real problem, the greed of Bobby Kotic is legendary, he will sell you the shirt off your back. Like he sold the duplicate maps from MW to MW2 customers. And when I picked up the map pack I stopped playing MW2 because I had already payed for 3 of those maps.
        
        What about Bobby Kotick’s idea of selling the right to watch cinimatics that are included on the disc you own. Greed is not the american way. When a persons greed is unreasonable people need to speak out. Mr. Kotick is the greediest most aggressive person in the gaming industry, if he isn’t stopped, he will keep buying up small game companies, and before you know it the game companies you love will be owned by BK and you will be paying $100 for the game and another $50 for animations, Another $50 for the shaders, another $50 for the particle effects.
        Not all business is about greed and excess, just the worst most hated businesses.
      - guest
        
        Whats the deal with people saying “I’M JUMPING SHIP TO ANOTHER MEGA COMPANY THAT NICKLE AND DIMES ME TOO!” Ea isn’t much better.
        
        Whatever happened to buying things because you know…you like them? Not because of whatever game company comes out with some thing like “VIP” or whatever that makes you think you have to buy the extras when you don’t. Map packs tho are a bit of a rip off, I think I bought maybe one mappack or two the entire span of CoD (the mappack from MW1 had maps from the original CoD, which I was ex tactic over, since it was an older game at the time, not released on consoles), the game doesn’t suddenly get more interesting with new maps. You’re still doing the same thing on different maps. If they really wanted to add something, why not add new weapons/perks/etc for these “map packs”. I guess it’s simplier to make a map and say it’s worth 15 bucks. I remember when maps used to cost a dollar or two a piece (like splitner cell 2′s map), and thought then it was overpriced.
        
        If this “nickle and diming” trend continues, you will see one of two things. More console gamers going to PC where modding is more acceptable.
        
        Another thing I never understood, is digital content, where I can re-download something if I uninstall it. I’ve never understood why gaming companies can’t just replace discs that are messed up, if you return said messed up disc. So if I say scratch a game up badly, and redownload it thru illegal means, does that make my copy illegit?
        
        Gaming used to be a niche businesse, now it’s a mega business, and as a result you get this crap. I pray for the day where a bunch of gamers create a “universal” hack that will allow whatever consolse their playing to play ANY game (since consolses are PCs anyhow). Then that will become “pirating”.
        
        They strive so hard to stop pirates, but do not understand that piracy is a direct result of corperate greed. Sure people will steal always, but if you start sticking it to your loyals, a few individuals will take it personally, and it only takes one individual to leak a game out earlier.
- Bazzcott
  
  I mean if it’s like TF2 on the pc, where the bought weapons are just unique, not overpowered, i’d have no problem, but I have a feeling it’ll be like this
  Regular weapons:all p90 silenced powered, mp40 rate of fire
  Elite weapons:Tar21 Scar H Ak47 from cod 4
  Elite perks:stopping power juggernaut automatic pro perks
  Regular perks:All black ops perks
  - Jeremy Conrad
    
    i just want to say this there is very few guns in call of duty that are overpowered you say the p90 is over powered but its not a p90 the actual gun i did research on it and a p90 has almost the same power as an lmg and a ak47 is one of the most if not the most powerful assault rifle in the world they aren’t overpowered you just get killed by them alot
- Jeremy Conrad
  
  i’m sorry but i would have to disagree at least being an xbox guy i know that there is no way that you are going to have to pay-to-play other than your $60/year because if you had to pay to play plus pay just to have xbox live microsoft knows people will stop buying their products right away and also i highly doubt that they will make you pay for perks for equipment because xbox and playstation or if you want to just talk about the publishers of the game aren’t like facebook where they just make a game they will only be a 1 month trend and make you pay for stuff they are multi billion dollar gaming companies that make games that reamin popular until they publish 2 more games. infinity ward/ activision are still making at least 50 million dollars this year just off of call of duty 4 if they end up making it pay-to-play then people will just revert back to the original call of duty, halo and battlefield games where you didn’t have to
Bas

Honestly, I really dont give a shit. Why? Because I’m not gonna buy or support any future Cod or even any Activision title. Please guys, just boycott Activision’s products. Or at the very least buy their games used so that they don’t get the money.

Great article.
Arde

who the hell even cares… I mean bf3.
Jill23312

To the author,are you retarded?Have you read the info that has been released?Call of Duty Elite is FREE.The Groups,stat tracking,heat maps,weapon info…ALL FREE. There will be a premium service available that will get you DLC,the ability to participate in contests,etc…,but Elite is FREE.You should make sure you have all your info straight before you posting lies on the internet,it makes you look like a huge dumb a$$.Do yourself a favor and go back and read the info released by Activision.
- http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith
  
  Did you watch the video? Or even look at the picture I clearly took from the video? It says, “some of the Call of Duty features in VIDEO require a paid membership.” The article evaluates each of the “features” mentioned in the video, clearly showing that any of those possibilities are offered FREE elsewhere.
NailDude

This will be huge. Despite everything being free elsewhere, people are lazy. If this brings it all together and makes it brainless, CoDer’s will eat it up.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7PVBDHTDBCD6CP2NY3LC3DC7GI Joe

ACTIVISION, you can kiss my elite A $ $!!!!!!!!!!
truthhurts

Fuck activision in the ass!!!
truthhurts

Fuck activision in the ass!!!
Bazzcott

What…The…Fuck… Everyone buy the Halo 1 remake being made by 343, and buy BF3, that’ll sure bitch slap activision.
TooLazyToType

As always, I love your thoughtful insight into the current events of our favorite hobby.

I agree with you 100%. Bungie has all of that, for free. Gamebattles does it, for FREE. Facebook does it, for FREE.

Next thing you know they’re going to be charging us a monthly fee to level up.
MLGChaoz

I dont really like COD but it looks really cool and nice i wish halo had something like it although when you get to talking about membership….rather not.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=677998744 Joey D Lee

Screw Activision.
guest

The head of Beachhead Studios, the Activision wing creating CODElite had been quoted as saying the CODElite pay service increased his gameplay by 20% over the free version… WTF??
MrEternity1

As others have already said you shouldn’t be upset now. You should have been upset when MW2 came out because for the past 4 years they have been churning out the same old game for a different skin. I personally haven’t played a Call of Duty game since 4 because of the following….
A.) The game is so repetitive, its always the same
stuff different skin.
B.) The annoying Call of Duty fan boys. Apparently
every “new installment” of Call of Duty is better than
the previous one.

My final note is this article is way overdue. Call of Duty elite
just confirms that Activision and all those other companies
want to suck the customer’s pockets dry.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000727320622 Joseph Barriteau

Yes, Activision WILL run Bungie into the ground as well. Halo 4 was just announced. While I think Bungie is more innovative than Infinity Ward enough is enough. All of the sequels are watering down the quality of games and I blame the people stupid enough to by Call of Duty every year.
Qahndj

I agree they’re just greedy douchebags
dude

9.99 and you get to play a game with MMO fee, without the content. I don’t get it, I won’t get it. FPS saturate the market, one a little less costly may be just as fun, and after six months of not spending money for a fee based game. You could buy a new premium title for you console. Save some of your money FTW.
Noah Hood

If nobody recognizes this as a money grab, then I have low esteem in modern games. Black Ops has this exact system in the game. People look at their stats in the game, they track how popular. Then they take the same things and put them in a subscription service with only some of the features offered for free this time. They want to lure you into this and then ultimately make you pay to play the game. Which I will NEVER do
Guest

However, Bungie, Google, or Gamebattles doesn’t allow you to have DLC maps, or other Addons for free like Elite does. One big part you leave out of the argument is that with an Elite subscription you get all DLC for your Sub period for free. Halo sucks.
Guest

I honestly don’t see why everyone is hating on Elite. One, the map packs are going to come out no matter what and if you’re going to be buying them, you might as well buy a sub for Elite, because the DLC comes free, AND Bungie doesn’t have a clan system, which for now may be down, but it’s still pretty badass.
Anon

http://twitition.com/4vjq3

Did you get the Elite service, and feel like you’ve been lied to and taken advantage of? Join the petition, your voice can be heard!!
Firestorm42O

There is a FREE version of this, so all things you mentioned you could get for free in the past, you still get for free, just like looking at your “player card” in Black Ops..
The only reason to buy Elite, is you get all the map packs included in the cost + get them faster.. so instead of buying a map pack 4 times at $15 bucks a peice (thats what 1200 gamerpoints equals) and playing $60 total, by the time your done, you buy Elite and only pay $50, plus get them sooner… so a $10 discount + get em sooner.. doesnt sound like a rip off to me.. all the other shyt you can get on the free version pretty much
Brutusfox

Unreal there are two dlc drops for elite premium members… and none for people who think elite is a money grab… why would anyone pay a year in advance for dlc..? As if buying the game is not enough to entitle me to dlc at the same time as everyone else.. If this is not a money grab…. what is..? And whats to say after they have your cash they dlc will get the same development effort as when they want your cash..
I am done with cod because of this mw3 will be my last edition and ill be buying none of their dlc either… dont be a sucker…lol
http://www.facebook.com/matt.goldup Matt Goldup

ive got a clan on elite and i have 37 members. 30 of the members have paid for the premium at £35 or $50 for the year so we can play clan matches which was promised b4 xmas. now if you add the game and the £35 or $50 that means activation have got over £2000 0r $2500 off my clan and we are still waiting for at least 1 clan game what a rip off.. now if this was me doing this id be in prison now for fraud shame on you at activation
Jeremy Conrad

so i see that you complained because of heat maps being used even though halo did it that is just ignorant that you said that they didnt do it for call of duty until now so its not bad at all and i have used the heat maps and they actually really help and you get that for free you get everything you mentioned for free but there are additional features that you have to pay for
Bdka

Activision can kiss my ass if they think I’m going to ever pay for crap like this.

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