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PSA: Black Ice, Black Box and Negotiator out for Call of Duty Elite subscribers on Xbox 360 today
Today you should find three new stomping grounds in Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360, provided you're a premium member of the Call of Duty Elite service. Black Ice and Negotiator, a pair of Spec Ops maps we were able to try out last week, and multiplayer locale Black Box, have been deployed in Modern Warfare 3.If you're not on board with Elite, you can pick up these maps -- along with Liberation, Piazza and Overwatch -- as part of the Content Collection #1 DLC pack on Xbox 360 from March 20.%Gallery-149099%
Negotiation with extreme prejudice in Modern Warfare 3 Spec Ops DLC
Striking that balance of emotional impact and tension in video games is no easy task. For one, video games aren't real, so I generally don't concern myself much when I run over a virtual pedestrian or cut off an AI driver in the final lap. I don't care if I'm a jerk in a video game.But there's something about watching some thug shoot an innocent virtual person in the face, directly in front of me, that really ticks me off. As Sledgehammer Games community manager Guy Beahm and I ran through the Spec Ops DLC coming to Modern Warfare 3 Elite subscribers tomorrow, and as part of Content Collection #1, I genuinely felt lousy when I was seconds from saving a hostage. I really wanted to save these people.%Gallery-149099%
PSA: Call of Duty Elite Clan Operations deployed on Xbox 360 and PS3
Console gamers have been missing out on some Call of Duty Elite functionality -- specifically, Clan Operations. Activision promised Clan Ops would be available soon and delivered today, flipping the switch that lets clans take part in competitions for extra experience and prizes. While all Elite members can take part in Clan Ops, only premium members will be scored and ranked on their performance.If you're still having trouble understanding how it all works, check out the handy explanation after the break, care of Activision.
PSA: Modern Warfare 3 'Overwatch' out today [update]
Activision is dropping the next Call of Duty Elite content pack for Modern Warfare 3 in Overwatch, a rooftop map for the game's multiplayer component. If you'd like to take a peek at that map, we've dropped the latest trailer just above. The Overwatch DLC map for MW3 is exclusive to 360 for a limited time.%Gallery-146713%
MW3's next DLC drops from a skyscraper onto Xbox Elite members on Feb. 21
Call of Duty Elite premium members playing Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Live will receive the next batch of DLC, Overwatch, on February 21. Overwatch puts players in a construction site at the top of a New York City skyscraper, with a very real chance of dropping 70 feet to the sidewalk as an added risk. If you have trouble visualizing that, check out the gallery below.The previous batch of downloadable content, Liberation and Piazza, is set to launch on PSN on February 28, having come out on Xbox Live in January, all in accordance with MW3's exclusivity deal with Microsoft. The next three batches of MW3 DLC will drop in March for Xbox premium members and will include the multiplayer map Black Box and two new Special Ops missions, Black Ice and Negotiator.%Gallery-146713%
Call of Duty Elite Clan Operations 'closer every day'
Until now, it's been difficult for Elite users to level up their clans in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. That appears to be changing in the near future, with the arrival of the long-awaited Clan Operations feature, which allows clans to take part in competitions for fun, experience, and even prizes.Beachhead posted a preview of the Clan Operations interface on the Elite forums, detailing how users will choose Operations, and what kind of information they'll see (how much Clan XP an Op is worth, their current enlistment status, and start and end dates). Users can also browse each Op's prizes ... like the Call of Duty Elite skateboard shown in the example.While this progress is promising, Beachhead still hasn't put a firm date on this feature's launch. "We're currently putting all Clan Operations through extensive testing," the company noted, "and while we can't give you a date on when it will be ready, it is getting closer every day."
PS3 CoD Elite premium members to get new old maps in February
Players with a paid Call of Duty Elite membership on Playstation 3 will be able to snag two new Modern Warfare 3 maps, Liberation and Piazza, on February 28. Both maps launched for Xbox 360 Elite premium members on January 24, and we presume they will come to non-Elite and PC players eventually -- possibly another month after the PS3 version goes live.Or possibly another two months, just to really rub it in, like the below screens for Liberation and Piazza will do.%Gallery-146285%
Modern Warfare 3 Elite maps locked to one profile on one console
The Call of Duty Elite DLC may be more "elite" than intended. Users on the Call of Duty forums are complaining that the DLC maps can only be played by one account per console. That means that only the person who bought it can play the maps -- not other users of the same game on the same console, unless they share a single Xbox Live profile."I just tried on my other account and you are right, I cannot use the maps on the same Xbox with another gamertag even though it's all on the same xbox," notes forum user HalfericTuck, just one of many complaining fans. Reader Aaron, who alerted us to this issue, told Joystiq, "My girlfriend, whom I live with, cannot play the maps. My friend's teenage sons cannot play the maps."This restriction does not square with the stated terms on the download. When users download the add-on, they are told, "You can use this item on the first Xbox 360 console you downloaded it to. Access to this item will also be granted to all users on this first console."We've inquired with Activision regarding this issue, and will let you know when we've heard back.[Thanks, Aaron]
Plan your life around this Modern Warfare 3 Elite DLC calendar
Activision has come closer to identifying the specifics of the Modern Warfare 3 DLC schedule for Elite members, posting a calendar that shows what kind of content will be available every month through September. Don't worry: it's just text and images, not a video of Rob Riggle reading the schedule out. Yet.February offers just one map, and April and July will have two maps each; aside from that, every month has some combination of maps, missions, and modes (modes in June and August). You can see exactly which combination will be available each month after the break, but Activision isn't revealing names until the current month, it appears.Update: See a walkthrough for downloading Elite content in the video above.
PSA: Call of Duty Elite app now available on Android Market
Call of Duty Elite is now available on the Android Market, for free. The Android version comes one week after the iOS launch but offers the same unprecedented ability to check your stats, review recent matches and update your in-game loadout from your phone. Elite on your Android device could make lunch lines, bus rides, work breaks, and long, fast car rides on busy freeways much more entertaining (OK, not that last one). Beachhead Studios head Chacko Sonny sees the initial mobile launch of Elite as a wonderful opportunity to get feedback from the community, so don't hold back -- not that you would, but now you have permission. [Thanks, Lance V.]
Tour the killing fields of Modern Warfare 3's first DLC with latest media
You've been shooting dudes for nearly three months since Modern Warfare 3's early November launch, but that Elite pass has yet to offer more than a chance to watch your buddy Tim's lame gameplay clips. That's all about to change! The first DLC is nearly upon us, and here is your first tour.
PSA: Call of Duty Elite iOS App now available
As promised, the Call of Duty Elite app for iOS is now available via the iTunes App Store, and just like its console counterpart, it's totally free. The Elite app offers a chance for Modern Warfare 3 players to track stats, player progression, revisit past matches, and a variety of other services, though we're told it's all the more thrilling if you're paying for the annual Elite subscription. The application is expected to arrive on Android devices next week.
Call of Duty Elite mobile apps for iOS out today
Activision has announced that its Call of Duty Elite mobile apps are arriving on iOS today -- they should be available for download from the App Store before long. The apps do require you to be registered to the Elite service (which works in conjunction to track all of your stats from the extremely popular Xbox 360, PS3 and PC games), but once you're all set up with that, you'll be able to log in, and check out the service's various "Connect, Compare and Compete" functions like browsing your own stats, looking at clan information, and even checking out official Activision contests and standings. I got to play with the app back at Call of Duty XP last year (on the Android OS, at least, which is getting its versions next week), and I can tell you that it's actually very impressive. Of course, if you don't play Call of Duty or use Elite -- note that you don't need a full subscription to use the apps, though there is a subscription available for some more premium features -- then the apps are pretty useless. But they do simply and clearly lay out all of your stats in a nicely designed interface. The CoD Elite system had some rough days when it first debuted with the release of Modern Warfare 3, but these days it runs pretty well, and the demo I saw had things syncing from the console game to the mobile app almost instantaneously. Plus, the apps will be free, so if you're on Elite, there's really no reason not to go ahead and grab them. These apps are probably the smartest thing Activision has done with iOS so far, so if they're as popular as the Call of Duty game, we might see more "meta"-game apps in the future.
Call of Duty Elite's mobile app launches tomorrow on iOS, next week on Android
You're standing in line for lunch, replaying last night's match on Arkaden in Modern Warfare 3 in your mind, when you remember the final shot -- you really wanted that gun. You could wait until you get home, check your recent matches on Elite and shank the winning shooter's weapon of choice -- like a peasant -- or you could do it right there, in line, on your phone -- like a boss. This is the vision Beachhead Studios head Chacko Sonny has for Call of Duty Elite's free mobile app, hitting iOS smart phones tomorrow, Jan. 10, and Android one week later. The Elite app will offer four main areas of mobile control: Career summary: Just like Elite main, check stats and general player information on yourself and others you've played Recent matches: After-action report on the past 10 matches, including scores, kill/death ratios, map information for yourself and others in the match Challenge Tracker: Tracks your progress through specific challenges Customize classes: Modify your loadout -- weapons, perks, attachments -- and push custom classes directly to game Anything altered in the Elite mobile app that affects loadouts or in-game options will be exported to console, and players will accept the changes after logging on. Most of the app's functions have been modified to fit a smaller screen, especially Sonny's favorite, class customization. Beachhead Studios developers have been testing the mobile app on their own phones, and Sonny said it expands the realm of bragging rights considerably because players will have proof -- or not -- of their achievements right in their pockets.
Call of Duty Elite trailer gives us the rundown
Now that Elite is up and running, Activision has seen fit to remind us of what the exact perks are for signing up for Call of Duty Elite with the above trailer. It's also got tons of sweeping shots of dudes holding guns, if that's more your thing.
A Thanksgiving weekend close-up for Call of Duty Elite's second take
When we last spoke with Call of Duty VP of Production Daniel Suarez two weeks ago, just after the record-breaking launch of Modern Warfare 3, things weren't going so well. Sure, MW3 sold 6.5 million units in a single day, but Activision's high-profile Call of Duty Elite service fell squarely on its face. Now, two weeks later, Elite is operational and Suarez says Activision is confident the service can withstand not only the Thanksgiving holiday but a potential post-Black Friday surge. "It was a lot of hard work from where we were two weeks ago, which was an embarassing place," Suarez confessed. "And now we're at a place where we're confidant people will be able to enjoy the service." And while Elite is operational or, as Suarez put it, "up on its feet," the team continues to push out new builds almost daily. "We still have some bugs and some kinks to work out," he said. "We've been pushing out fixes everyday to address people on Twitter" and elsewhere.
Activision hits 4 million Elite subscribers, adjusts MW3 player numbers
While Activision scrambles to repair Call of Duty Elite, it seems more and more users are piling onto the beleaguered service. The company today announced that the service managed to acquire four million registrations in its first six days of (sort of) operation. What's more, one million of those are paid memberships, leading us to ponder how much $49.99 times 1 million is. Our math skills are rusty, but we're fairly certain the number is pretty big. Furthermore, Activision also revealed that the service has seen more than one million daily logins, and users have already created over 80,000 clans and uploaded more than 100,000 videos. In other news, Activision issued a correction on Modern Warfare 3's day one player numbers. The company previously announced that the FPS juggernaut pulled in 3.3 million simultaneous players on launch day, November 8. Turns out the real number is under half of that at 1.4 million. There were, however, 3.3 million unique games played on launch day. That's still pretty good, we suppose.
Activision: Call of Duty Elite to be up and running by Dec. 1
While it's been a rocky start for Activision's Call of Duty Elite service, it would appear that there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking with G4, Activision's VP of production, Daniel Suarez, said that the current goal is to have Elite online for everyone by December 1. "They kind of have to bear with us while we bring this all back up, but for us it's literally 'Give us those couple weeks, we're giving those to you for free and come December 1 the goal is that we'll have everything up and running,'" Suarez said. Activision's previous effort to quell concerns of subscribers included a free extra month of subscription to the service, while Beachhead currently works to get Elite, well, working. And while Beachhead monitored the beta for months, admittedly it couldn't foresee just how many users would sign up. But hey, we finally have some kind of promised timeline for full functionality. Let's just hope Beachhead and Activision can honor that promise.
GameStop moves 600K Call of Duty Elite subscriptions, a 'top 10 launch' this year
Wondering how Call of Duty Elite is doing? Well, stability-wise it's still a touch-and-go mess. But sales wise, you could call it a "hit." During an earnings call today, GameStop prez Tony Bartel said, "In the case of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, we worked closely with Activision, Sony and Microsoft to pre-order and deliver nearly 600,000 instances of the Modern Warfare Elite DLC to date." So a single retailer delivered 600,000 paying subscribers to Call of Duty Elite, on the back of 6.5 million day one purchases across all retailers. That sounds significant, right? Bartel says, "This places the launch of Elite as one of our top 10 launches of the year so far." We followed up with GameStop for some additional color, and were told Call of Duty Elite "is the most successful DLC launch of all time," for the retailer. Still think Elite was a bad idea? [Image credit: bfads.net]
How Beachhead is putting Call of Duty: Elite back together again
With Call of Duty Elite still struggling to serve its much-touted blend of stats and features to the throng of Modern Warfare 3 consumers, we asked Call of Duty VP of Production Daniel Suarez to explain the outage, what Activision and Beachhead Studios are doing to fix it, and when we might finally be able to see what Elite is all about. After months of hype, confusion, controversy, and promises, the ambitious web service has failed to launch and, in so doing, has failed to silence the skeptics. It didn't take long to realize Elite wouldn't hold up to the traffic. Beachhead Studios chief Chacko Sonny posted a notice on the Call of Duty Elite status page in the early morning hours of launch day, but the game had been in consumers' hands for some time. "It's a worlwide launch for MW3 and Elite, so we had a launch occuring Monday late afternoon with Australia and then everything kicking in into Europe and then into the East Coast in the US and then the West Coast," Suarez recounted. "So the launch of MW3 had been huge and we knew it would be huge, it just translated into a tremendous amount of traffic to Elite. And we anticipated it to be big, it just turned out to be even bigger than that." The problems began at the earliest stage of the process: registration. "The high demand from the console application and registration on the website from the PC really crippled the registration and login process which then translated into the backend servers being slammed," Suarez explained. "So we've been working around the clock to alleviate access into the system and we've had a large number of people now able to register. We've resolved that piece of it and now we're actually working on getting the service back up and running to a point where poeple can then enjoy it."
