How Much Are You Willing To Pay For Call of Duty: Elite?

Posted by Terry Lucy on May 31, 2011 in News · 13 Comments

Call of Duty: Elite is the premium service that is going to accompany Call of Duty titles from November this year. The service is going to be available through the games themselves, the Internet, and even on Phones via an official Call of Duty: Elite application.

Elite is going to be a paid service, which will include downloadable content, as well as the features we set out in our preview. But what will be a fair yearly price for Call of Duty: Elite? Activision’s Jamie Berger stated that the price will be “less than any comparable service right now.” But what is a comparable service? We can’t think of anything that is directly comparable to Call of Duty: Elite.

So lets lay out what fans are going to get with Call of Duty: Elite. The service is set to include the downloadable content for Call of Duty titles, which on their own usually set players back around 10-12 pounds. Call of Duty titles usually receive DLC around twice per year, or twice per title in the franchise. This, coupled with the in-depth Elite service which will be in-game as well as a web and mobile application, could end up being a costly service, especially considering that Beachead is a brand new studio which we assume will need to turn a profit.

We’ve discussed this at length in the God is a Geek ranks, and we believe that a fee off 30-35 pounds per year would probably be a fair amount to those that buy the premium service. The value of Elite would be greatly increased if the included DLC was backdated to previous Call of Duty titles, though we are just speculating that this could be the case.

What do you think would be a fair price? Is £30-35 too much? Let us know in the comments.

Call of Duty: Elite is set to launch alongside Modern Warfare 3 on November 8, 2011.

Click here for a read of our hands-on impressions.

Tags: Activision, Call of Duty, elite, Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 3, PC, playstation 3, Sledgehammer Games, treyarch, Xbox 360

Terry Lucy

I'm 23, from London, UK. I am the co-host for a technology talk show and an all round nerd. Video games have been a huge part of my life. As soon as I was old enough to pick up a control pad, I was playing games. I split my spare time between pubs and arcades, two of my favourite places on Earth.

Feel free to come and say hi to me on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/RantAbulus Abul Hussain
I’m willing to pay -£60. I believe that means Activision owes me?
Ta.
http://twitter.com/RantAbulus Abul Hussain
I’m willing to pay -£60. I believe that means Activision owes me?
Ta.
Dave3087
$0
John
NO PRICE is acceptable! I cannot understand why/how people would pay for this silly service! As long as I can access multiplayer and kill as I please I dont care! NOT a chance I will pay for such nonesense!
John
NO PRICE is acceptable! I cannot understand why/how people would pay for this silly service! As long as I can access multiplayer and kill as I please I dont care! NOT a chance I will pay for such nonesense!
Anonymous
If the service doesn’t cost around $40-50 USD yearly, it simply does not have enough data to hold water. Unless it acts as a delivery service for ALL DLC content, it’s a waste of money. Unless more than simply 1 console gets “timed-exclusive” rights to something everyone should be able to access, it’s a waste of money–because that’s basically delaying content to constantly paying customers. And unless it’s releasing new content every 2-4 weeks, much like Blizzard’s WoW, then it’s a waste of money to value itself more than $4 USD a month. Black Ops has plans to release 5 DLC packs over the course of this year, which will span itself to equal $75 in total.
This service will be more than profitable if it’s cheap, in fact, by business standardization, they’ll be making more money then if they actually sell content under a subscription basis, because it lacks royalties to the online store-holders (PSNS and XBLA) and they’ll be constantly reaping the profits, instead of once every 2-3 months.
But if it’s $50 year, or $5 a month (like XBL, $60 in subscription or $50 up front per year) that’s a hefty price to pay for monthy exclusivity to DLC content on the 360. Think about it. That’s $50 on top of the $50 you’re already paying for XBL. And you’ll have to pay $75 for DLC content on Black Ops to get it all. It’s cheaper, but it’s still money. If anything, XBL should get it free and just drop the 1 month exclusivity, because they’re already paying for something that shouldn’t cost money.
Patrick K
This service is going to flop and flop hard, because NOBODY WANTS THIS. This is for the casual gamer and no casual gamer would pay for this and the hardcore spectrum(which this should be focussed on) already have PVR’s. This service is like a lead balloon, because it doesn’t, as far as we know, doesn’t provide [much] in-game features and content. Honestly this is a horrible idea. Activision should hire gamers to come up with some ideas I could do better.
Guest
Literally nothing.
Guest
Literally nothing.
Guest
Literally nothing.
datdude
Looks like it will be battlefield 3 for me this year. No way am I going to support this crap in any way, shape, form, or function. There are plenty of games dropping at that time frame this year (Uncharted, Arkham City, Gears of War, Forza, Battlefield, Rage, etc. etc.) and I believe that Black Ops will be my last Cod purchase unless Activision drastically changes their strategy. Less is more equals no sale. Greedy bastards.
datdude
Looks like it will be battlefield 3 for me this year. No way am I going to support this crap in any way, shape, form, or function. There are plenty of games dropping at that time frame this year (Uncharted, Arkham City, Gears of War, Forza, Battlefield, Rage, etc. etc.) and I believe that Black Ops will be my last Cod purchase unless Activision drastically changes their strategy. Less is more equals no sale. Greedy bastards.
datdude
Looks like it will be battlefield 3 for me this year. No way am I going to support this crap in any way, shape, form, or function. There are plenty of games dropping at that time frame this year (Uncharted, Arkham City, Gears of War, Forza, Battlefield, Rage, etc. etc.) and I believe that Black Ops will be my last Cod purchase unless Activision drastically changes their strategy. Less is more equals no sale. Greedy bastards.