Activision adds 30 days of free Call of Duty Elite as compensation for launch woes

It looks like Activision and Infinity Ward were successful in courting games to Call of Duty: Elite. Too successful, it would seem, as the login servers were hit so severely during the initial influx that it still hasn't recovered. "At launch, our registration and login systems were crushed by gamers trying to enter the Elite site at the same time. We have now fixed the registration and login systems, but we have found that the greater than expected demand is crashing servers," said a notice posted on the official Elite website.

But besides admitting the problem, Activision is acting to try and make things right with those who have been let down by the service so far.

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"We’re immediately deploying multiple additional servers to beef up the system. We are also going to temporarily limit access to Elite services on both the console applications and website while we build additional capacity and scale. We’ll look to increase access to greater numbers of users as soon as possible," the notice continued, promising that upgrades would have the system up sooner than later. For those who've already purchased a year pass, however, Activision is offering out an olive branch by tacking on another month to their membership, hoping to make up for the less-than-perfect (see: nonfunctional) launch. The trial is getting an extension as well, if you're still on the fence.

They're also affirming that stats are still being tracked, even if they can't be checked on Elite just yet, making this feel like less of a catastrophe for the new service and more of a speed bump. Still, considering the last Call of Duty game sold over 20 million copies, you'd think they'd be more prepared for a server-destroying influx of gamers than it appears that they were. It's not like the game's popularity is a surprise, right?