Call of Duty Elite has one million paid subscribers already

Despite a bumpy start, players already invested big in CoD service

Words: Henry Gilbert on November 22, 2011

When Activision revealed the new service for Call of Duty subtitled Elite, many were doubtful. Some saw it as just another way for the publisher to squeeze money out of the hugely popular series. But obviously many were into what the service had to offer, as a million players have already paid money to take part in the program.

When it launched with Modern Warfare 3 November 8, the program is $50 a year in the paid tier, offering access to DLC content and other perks. Four million total have registered for Elite, with the majority taking part in the free offerings of the plan. All this despite a troubled launch that included outages of the service that lead Activision to giving an extra month free to all the early premium users. Activision is boasting the speedy success of Elite, though we wonder if the millions that tried it during the launch weren't turned off a little by what they experienced. Can Acti recover in time to give these players their money's worth?

Source: GameIndustry.biz

Platforms:

Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS3

Topics:

Activision, Call of Duty Elite

18 comments

View as:
Newest first
Oldest first

e1337prodigy - November 24, 2011 12:19 p.m.

one word to those people. "su***rs". They obviously massive fanboys and haven't tried anything else so they know no better. They think that CoD is as good as it gets.
- Reply
- Report
BudaBaker - November 24, 2011 9:40 a.m.

This is stupid you're paying for the same services you get with battlefield 3 and halo reach for free.
- Reply
- Report
christian-shaffer - November 24, 2011 1:30 p.m.

I didn't get it for the service. I got it because it saves me money on the dlc that I would buy anyway. Call me an idiot if you want, but I don't have a problem paying for a game that I'm going to get continuous use out of for the next year at least.
- Reply
- Report
lancevance821 - November 24, 2011 2:56 a.m.

I can't believe the amount of sheep live in america. This is crazy and dumb. And lets pay for a service we don't need. If Activison was a better company they would have made the COD elite service at no extra cost to customers. They Sold like 237 million they can afford it. Lets buy 80 dollar COD sunglasses, 100 dollar COD headsets and 60,000 COD jeeps. If you really buy these things because you think your cool or that it will make you a better player. Then you are being suckered into that corporations greed. And I hope you get Aids.
- Reply
- Report
tiben36 - November 23, 2011 3:21 p.m.

if the ad was a guy sucking his own dick, it would've been much less gay than this also, nice product placement on the jeep wrangler *cough*fags*cough*
- Reply
- Report
bebl09 - November 23, 2011 1:13 p.m.

Hey Henry, I think you misspelt 'sheep' in the title there.
- Reply
- Report
Crabhand - November 23, 2011 12:34 p.m.

Somewhere in the depths of Activision's offices, Bobby Kotick is thanking the genie he used to make this all possible. I figured Call of Duty would have finally hit its peak in popularity and sales, but it seems like people aren't quite ready to see it scaled back.
- Reply
- Report
bilstar - November 23, 2011 10:10 a.m.

Mad sales number. Fair play I suppose! It'll be interesting to see how well Activision treats it's subscribers in terms of DLC, now they have the money up front, as it were.
- Reply
- Report
bigwill1221 - November 23, 2011 6:24 a.m.

What's free about the dlc?...
- Reply
- Report
industriedude - November 23, 2011 5:16 a.m.

Can we stop referring to it as 'free DLC'? It's not free if you have to pay $50 a year for the service and the DLC. This does sound like a great service for the hardcore gamers though.
- Reply
- Report
TheMasterJeef - November 23, 2011 5:06 a.m.

Wow a lot of kids got hold of their mother/fathers credit cards... ;) @ Redeater (Love the MST3K avatar by the way!) Yeah sad to see those games bomb in sales. I found Bulletstorm a lot of fun and such a change from the many generic humourless military shooters. That said im loving the multiplayer on Battlefield 3.
- Reply
- Report
Y2Ken - November 23, 2011 4:29 a.m.

I'll just say it: I'm a paid member. I bought the elite edition knowing that I will play this game on and off with my friends, so I figured the free DLC is enough to make it worthwhile. As a mainly single-player and co-op guy, it's really the only "competitive" multiplayer I do much of, so I'm happy enough with the purchase. Also typo at the end there Henry, should be "... give these players their money off".
- Reply
- Report
Y2Ken - November 23, 2011 4:30 a.m.

... I mean "money's worth". :)
- Reply
- Report
D0CCON - November 23, 2011 9:12 a.m.

You technically could get your money's worth if 4 map packs are released assuming the $15 price is kept, but if only 3 are released, you'd be spending $5 more than you needed to.
- Reply
- Report
christian-shaffer - November 24, 2011 1:33 p.m.

They've promised to release a certain amount of dlc in the span of the year. It would be unwise to go back on their word.
- Reply
- Report
Redeater - November 23, 2011 4:21 a.m.

This is why people have to stop complaining about this shit. While I still think you gamers are nuts for passing up Bulletstorm/Okami/Enslaved/Platinum Games and everything else I loved that has failed in sales, I am willing to accept that COD DLC are going to sell like hotcakes. The thing is I still don't think this sort of DLC is going to affect other gamers. What developer would have the balls to charge ridiculous amounts of cash for DLC for a game that might only sell a million copies if they are lucky?
- Reply
- Report
AuthorityFigure - November 23, 2011 2:44 a.m.

Insane amount of sales there. Just, just, massive.
- Reply
- Report
muelsknr - November 23, 2011 12:02 a.m.

"When Activision revealed the new service for Call of Duty subtitled Elite, many were doubtful. Some saw it as just another way for the publisher to squeeze money out of the hugely popular series." Still do. Except for the free DLC, most of it has already been done before.
- Reply
- Report