Activision Sets a New Low with Outrageous MW3 Elite Subscription Model
When you’re the big dog, you can get away with just about anything, and Activision is here to give us all yet another shining example. A subscription service for their premier first-person shooter franchise, Call of Duty, was rumored for the past couple of years, but many dismissed it as a completely implausible joke. However, nightmare has become reality with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Elite subscription service announced earlier in the year, and a very pricy one at that.
For the price of $49.99/year, MW3 Elite subscribers will receive the following:
- Monthly map DLC.
- Clan leveling features.
- Eligibility to compete in competitions for prizes.
- Several more slots for recorded replays.
- Access to many exclusive videos.
The Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition will include a single year of Elite access, and since it costs $99.99, it’s the most cost effective way to get the first year’s subscription. Chances are that those who don’t sign up will have to pay an arm and a leg for maps, so that $49.99/year tag will begin to look small after a year of map packs are purchased.
Back in May, Activision released plenty of media detailing Call of Duty Elite‘s interface and some of its offerings, so be sure to check that out before you sign up for this outrageous service.
48 Responses to “Activision Sets a New Low with Outrageous MW3 Elite Subscription Model”
Look at this:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-ominous-trends-in-video-games/
Pay particular attention to #4, as it pertains to this story.
i read the whole article and your right on the money. the problem is xbox users are use to throwing money away on foolish things thats why this is gonna go through. when you have millions of people buying into some b.s.. it affects us all. ps3 has no pay to play online. 360 you pay. the stupid thing is the same games they pay for to play on 360 i play for free on a pc or ps3. ps3 online free, 360 pay for a gold membership. plus the game plus map packs and who knows what else. me i’ll just by the game and play what you gave me. i got bills to pay fuck an elite pack that works for only one game.
BF3 and R3 anyone?
Re3 FTW Brotha!
What exclusive videos would I want to see of CoD?
none that i can’t already see on roosterteeth.com, fails of the week.
This is pathetic
i know there’s a guy called n00b on these forums that swears by COD. hahahaha what an appropriate name, especially for the kids that absolutely love this COD drivel. the latest MW3 footage makes it look like MW2.1 or should we call it Call Of Doody: War Hero 8. this series is all headed downhill from here. i’m sure there’ll still be lots of tweens that’ll get their parents to purchase this “new map pack” dubbed MW3 anyways.
That is if Mom and Dad still have a job that can afford the subscription… I don’t see many people able to pay for this with the way our Economy is shedding jobs. And Jr. can’t find a summer job at McD’s so there will be lots of gamers not getting MW3 Elite class.
YAY! I have a fan!
In the words of one of my favorite movies real genius: “There are many decaffeinated brands on the market that taste just as good as the original” I will not be getting the game at all. I will settle for Resistance 3, Battlefield 3, or skip it altogether and get skyrim.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA and might I say, HA.
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I forgot to add that at least it will be cheaper on the PSN since you don’t have to pay $49.99 for the Gold subscription for the X-box to get MP gameplay. You don’t need a Plus subscription to play it on the PS3.
Still it’s like paying $49.99 to have someone kick you in the balls repeatedly.
i’ll do it for free, just ask me. XD
cod! It ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
cod! It’s got one friend, that’s the undertaker
cod has shattered many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to precious to spend fighting cod these days
cod can’t give life, it can only take it away
cod! Huh Good God y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing………!!!
I was watching MW3 gameplay vids on youtube today and it looks EXACTLY like previous CoD games. Literally the exact same game with a new map pack. This will be the first CoD that I will NOT be purchasing.
What took you so long?
im getting pretty sick of reading yellow-ish journalism…please present the facts as they are and state your point of view in the article instead of persuading people what to think by presenting your opinions as facts
the only way this subscription model would be beneficial to a CoD consumer is if they did get the hardened package…but even then, its a tough sell
i would only ever get this if i planned on playing the game for more than 20 days gametime before the next one, which i dont…when skyrim comes out, this game is going on the shelf probably for good
Umm, What are you talking about? Nowhere in the article is anyone’s opinion presented as fact. If you really think you can report game news better there are plenty of domains out there for you to make your own site and show the guys of PSLS how “real” journalism is done
im only talking about one journalist on this site…the past three articles have had blunt personal opinions in the titles and throughout the articles….this could easily be titled “activision details MW3 elite subscription model”…its not as extreme as ive seen it other places, but its persuasive instead of informative. i am no journalist and would never claim to be able to do a better job…as a reader, i expect the news to reported as is and then i can choose my opinions…if this were an opinion piece, obviously it would be expected and fine, but its not – it is a report
i tried to show respect in presenting my voice to the writer, and obviously that means nothing to some people like yourself….apparently you cant take opposing ideals so you revert to hiding behind insults instead of countering
using your logic, anything posted on this site is 100% credible….i suppose if one of the authors decided to post entirely false information, you’d be right there backing them up? foolish
I didn’t insult you. I just don’t get what’s so wrong with the article. “Activision Sets a New Low with Outrageous MW3 Elite Subscription Model” Only an ignorant person wouldn’t agree that Activision is setting a new low with this subscription model. (I’m not calling you ignorant by the way). The title of an article means everything. If this article was called “Activision details MW3 elite subscription model” I wouldn’t have clicked on it. In a world full of sites reporting the same news titles have to be attractive or no one will click on the link. If a site doesn’t generate traffic than it goes away. If this site was making up lies I wouldn’t visit it everyday but I know this is a place I can trust so I do defend it because the journalism here is better than most other sites. The article didn’t bash Activision or anyone else and the title makes sense because $50 a year to watch stupid Call of Duty videos (I know there is more to it but not enough) is ridiculous.
if you don’t like how PSLS presents their articles then quit coming here to read them…it’s pretty simple.
like i said, its only recently and one author…sorry to offend so many
im allowed to have an opinion, arent i?
indeed you are allowed your opinion. but at the same time, so is everyone else. also, you do not need to voice your opinion, or, deal with what your opinion brings upon you. what bothers you here bothers me on kotaku, namely one Owen Good. thus, i don’t read what he writes nor do i comment there because i don’t care to deal with the tons of site fans that would continually bash me for my opinion.
yes i will not be buying this Shit either! COD thanx for the Good times but it ie time to move one to bigger and better Things! “BF3″
So if you own a Xbox 360 & want all this you have to pay for this + pay for Xbox LIVE to every year? ? ?
Hmm. . .i am glad i have a PS3 then! ! !
(not that i am getting this anyway, to much excellent PS3 only stuff to buy & play)
indeed good sir.
LONG LIVE PLAY!
i too am tired of cod. there was atime i thought it had no match. now i prefer killzone 3 and of course looking forward to BF3, Rage and Bioshock 3. COd is not on my radar for all the reasons mentioned above
GAMERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! dont put up with this crap. BOYCOTT BOYCOTT!! if you let them do this to you they’ll keep doing it and make it worse, why would you want to play $50 dollars a year to play a game YOU ALREADY PAID FOR! this is ridiculous. now i know there are people that are stupid enough to fall for this, just look at the people that play WoW. i added it up one time, a friend of mine pays about $120 a year to play a game he already spent $120 on to buy the game and all the expansions. thats just crazy, i know pc gamers have money to burn but i dont! now i wouldn’t mind “pay to play” so much if you didn’t have to buy the game in the first place. so boycott this elite sub. crap, boycott mw3, and boycott activision! these greedy bastards need to stop ruining my life. ya’ll have a nice day!
LONG LIVE PLAY!
I’ve been boycotting Activision for years now, why do people keep bringing this up like it’s news? I now I always bash COD but the state of MW3 at E3 was just insulting to the games industry as a whole. The creator of Pacman would be turning in he’s ghost box shaped grave. Most of the games there had at least one thing, one thing that showed they could be one of the biggest titles of 2011/12 but MW3? NOTHING.
In fact the coverage I saw on it was so bad that the people commenting decided to start talking about how good the sound was. COD’s become the disabled kid at the school event who wins just for taking part so he dosen’t throw a tantrum. They don’t have anything new, heck if any other games company brought out a game like MW3 they’d get torn to shreds.
I hate how people place COD higher then all the other games revealed at E3 put together for doing almost half the work they did individually. I saw Micheal Patcher’s comments on why people will want MW3 to fail so it might actually happen. DAMN RIGHT I WANT IT TO FAIL. It has no right being on the top and if takes a game like Battlefield to do it then so be it.
how does it ruin your life though? you don’t have to subscribe to this if you don’t want to. but i know plenty of people all they do is play call of duty maybe a few other games , but more call of duty then anything. im looking forward to mw3 , but to be honest i was looking forward to mass effect 3 a lot more but since that was delayed uncharted 3 and skyrim are my two most anticipated games this year.
I don’t think it’ll ruin my life and I don’t have a vendetta against Activision (I exgerate for effect) but the point I’m getting across is that Activision are doing this and based on how loyal COD fans are they’ll make a lot of money from this.
I don’t have any problem with people liking or buying from Activision, what games other gamers buy is quite frankly none of my business but I do believe that when a company like Activision makes a lot of money the way they do that other companies look at them and think they’ll do the same.
To be fair I’m proberbly just being paranoid, nothing will change and everything will be the same but it has happened before, EA Games with the online pass and now we have others like Sony pulling the same move.
The way I see it is 60$ for 4 map packs or the 49$ for 4 map packs pluss other features, in the end it depends on how much you play cod , if you play enough ull get your money’s worth.
Not that I am a huge fan of CoD, I do not understand why people are surprised about this, it was pretty much already known what players would get with Elite.
People are already paying $15 per map pack and there are supposedly going to be 4 of them for MW3, so why would they mind paying $50 to get them cheaper and earlier.
exactly….it would make sense for someone who plays an obscene amount to subscribe to elite….lots of people are quitting the series due to several reason which is perfectly understandable, but there are a lot of people who have systems for one reason only – to play call of duty….some have no interest in any other game, which some may consider a fault, but either way, thats what they exclusively want to play so perhaps this is worth it to that type of person
i dont understand why anyone who says anything positive about this service or call of duty gets flamed for it….theres plenty of fun to be had in the series…thats why you still bought FFFXIII, isnt it? yet no one bitches and complains about square enix releasing gradually worse and worse games
FINALLY! Something that will kill this monster…I’m afraid the average consumer is much too stupid to ever give up on this franchise just on the merits of the games themselves but I think this will finally deliver a blow to their sales. Their initial sales may not be affected because there may be a bunch of ignorant consumers who just don’t know this is happening, but as soon as word spreads I think we will see continued sales decline and it will also hurt the sales of the next COD game….what am I saying, COD fans are dumb enough this probably won’t affect the franchise at all.
What, no $100 toy gun? I suppose they’ll announce that next week.
Like I always say, there’s a sucker born every minute, and it’s Bobby Kotick’s job to screw ‘em over to the maximum degree possible. That’s what God puts them on this earth for.
We had all better buy ear plugs. I really don’t wanna hear all of the COD fan boys crying when decisions like this causes no more CODs at all. lol
OOooooo. Exclusive videos! Something no sane person wants to watch. Just like movie commentary on DVDs.
I actually enjoy the commentaries on dvds. I feel sorry for anyone who actually pays for this crap.
Im not a COD fan, i dont hate the series, but it does bother me that such a generic shooter has set the record for the highest selling game of all time, when theres so many other titles worthy for that type of recognition.
As far as this sub. plan, I wouldnt call it low or outrageous. Like someone else already said, if theres supposed to be at least 4 map packs @ $15, then I suppose you save a bit of cash on them, plus get a few other perks. The only difference is that Activision wants all the money for the map packs upfront. In my mind, their mentality is “lets collect all the cash in advance and upfront from all the hardcores in case they become disabled, incapacitated, or die”, because of course, they cant collect squat from you if youre dead
Collecting all the money for mappacks upfront will be a huge moneymaker for them. A lot of people buy CoD, play it for a week, realize its boring and never touch it again. This resulted in a lot of lost map pack sales. Buying the entire package up front when its still *new* and *exciting* will net a lot more cash for BOBBY.
It’s funny how everyone is thinking like this is a $50 one time fee, it’s every year, so if MW3 is your most favorite CoD ever and your loyal to the series/game you are the one cheated out of your money. Kick in the teeth of your DieHard fan base. How many DieHards still playing MW2 or WAW. Nice way to tap the wrong fanbase
Wait this is $50 a year? So with the XBOX Live fee and the price of the game that sets you back around $150 dollers from the get off (assuming you haven’t got XBOX Live), I pray I got this wrong because that is fucking insanity. There must be some rule against this, SERIOUSLY there must be some rule against charging that much for a videogame.
Who would fall for this scam?
i have both consoles and i have to say you as ps3 users are way off base with what xbox has to offer for 1 xbox has better servers and xbox always gets new contient way before ps3 users ever will ps3 will always be in the shadows of xbox so get a grip and stop complaining about xbox nobody said you had to pay for anything and that is why you all have lag issues with your servers and never get anything before xbox cus you all wont help game developers they need to get paid just like the next person so stop hating on xbox users cuz you all want something for nothing and that is just what you all get is nothing hahahaha like i said i have a ps3 that just collects dust cuz of the server issues
oh and 1 more thing you all are dogging out mw3 cuz the hardened edition wasnt offered to you why cuz xbox rules all consoles cuz we do pay and get what we pay for unlike ps3 and once again sony fails