MW3 and micro-transactions

[Zeta333]

Hours ahead of the agreed-upon embargo for the news, the Wall Street Journal is the first to report on Call of Duty Elite, the long-reported "digital platform" in development at Activision's new Beachhead studio. Designed to complement this fall's Modern Warfare 3, Elite will be a paid service though "portions of the service will be free" including a Facebook-inspired Groups feature.

Other features of the service include the Bungie Pro-like ability to display stats to analyze player performance, "gauging factors such as which weapons have been most successful for them in killing enemies." If you're worried that you'll suddenly have to pay for online multiplayer in Call of Duty titles, don't be. The Journal reports that "players will still be able to compete against each other online without subscribing to the service."

Activision hasn't yet pinned down a price point, though it does expect the cost to be less than comparable "online-entertainment services" like the $8/month Netflix. Part of that fee will go towards a "customer-service operation that will be needed to support it." It will also include the year's map packs, which cost $15 each, taking some of the sting out of any annual charge.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/30/call-of-duty-elite/



Yay another way activision is out to fuck us over... Who wants to bet they will add guns to this and make it so you can only use the map packs if you have the elite subscriptions.


FYI i dont care if you think BF3 will beat MW3 so keep that shit out of here.

[ohshift]

Activi$ion and Bobby Kotick are laughing at all the idiots who will pay

[Asics]

I already never bought map packs as it was, oh well. At least CoD4 is still fun.

[Inashne]

Not really. You wont have to pay the extra amount to just play.

[georgevonfranken]

I just read this and laughed.

[Remilia]

So... you pay, to see other people's stats and maps? Thats it? Really?

[Deleted]

like said its like Bungie-Pro, wich actually has nothing actively to do with your online play. its merly a stats board, so if your at the high-end of the clan scale you will be expected to pay it. but for the casual gamer you wouldnt even want this.
This will in no way hamper gameplay, there will be no "pro" maps or guns. Period. (since its counter-productive)

[Penguin FTW]

Yeah, Bungie keeps those comprehensive stats for free, you just pay to have a much larger capability to store pictures and videos

[Zeta333]

Not really. You wont have to pay the extra amount to just play.

but watch them make it so you need the premium to play the new maps, not just dl but continue to play on them.

[BAKANA]

If I'm reading your quote right (I'll admit, I didn't read the linked article), it sounds like this will just be something high end competitive clans will want. Stat boards and what not.

[Zeta333]

like said its like Bungie-Pro, wich actually has nothing actively to do with your online play. its merly a stats board, so if your at the high-end of the clan scale you will be expected to pay it. but for the casual gamer you wouldnt even want this.
This will in no way hamper gameplay, there will be no "pro" maps or guns. Period. (since its counter-productive)

And you know this exactly how?

[Penguin FTW]

If I'm reading your quote right (I'll admit, I didn't read the linked article), it sounds like this will just be something high end competitive clans will want. Stat boards and what not.

I don't know, shit's pretty interesting

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/De...0Penguin%20ftw

[PACOX]

Bungie does most of this for free. Brink is adding it for free in June. Only MW heads will actually pay for this. Pretty much they are taking the meta features of BlackOps and making them fee based.

Makes perfect sense /sarcasm.

[Deleted]

So... you pay, to see other people's stats and maps? Thats it? Really?

And a Facebook inspired group features, OH MY GOD.

/facepalm

[Deleted]

And you know this exactly how?

I'm sure he's correct. The company may well just be after more money but they're not stupid. Putting specific extra content in that's not available to those who don't subscribe is a bad business move and will make them VERY unpopular. It's been suggested by people with all the other COD games - We have map packs, so why not gun packs? Because the logistics of it wouldn't work, given that you can pick other people's weapons up off the floor.

That being said, if they had specific lobbies for those who were subscribing, that wouldn't be an issue, as long as the lobbies were things that your casual gamer wouldn't be interested in anyway, such as a specific MLG lobby with recorded stats, sort of like WoW Arena teams. In that context, adding "pro" maps or guns would be at least somewhat accepted by the community because as the poster said, it wouldn't hamper gameplay. They can't afford to do that.

With regards to the OP... Eh. I'm debating whether to get Modern Warfare 3 or not. This really isn't going to impact my decision. I'd be playing it reasonably casually anyway so I wouldn't feel any need to purchase whatever this is. Exactly the same as with WoW. I have no need to purchase the mobile auction house or guild chat, or the upcoming cross realm dungeon groups feature, so I don't really see any need to complain about it. Sure you can moan that the company is full of evil, money grabbing capitalists, but isn't every company? The people who develop these games don't do it for the sheer pleasure they get from creating and playing them. If they can introduce a feature like this that they feel will generate enough profit to outweigh the people who refuse to purchase the game because of it, they'll do it. It'll always be this way, so I don't intend to get worked up about it.