Ben-DutkaCall of Duty: Black Ops II is right around the corner, and it's time to make it all the more attractive to consumers.
Today, Activision Publishing has announced that the Call of Duty Elite services for the hotly anticipated blockbuster will be free for BOII when the game launches on November 13. This means that both new and existing subscribers to Elite's services will be able to enjoy all the extra stuff for no charge.
Said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg:
"We've learned a lot in our first year of Call of Duty Elite, and we're very proud that we over delivered on our commitment of playable content to our premium members. What we have realized is that several of the Call of Duty Elite services which are currently only available to our premium members for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 are things that would further unite, engage and delight our player community. So we are going to make them free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II."
However, it's important to note that the four DLC map packs scheduled for the game are not part of Elite; if you want those, you should look into the Season Pass. This will deliver all four packs for 4,000 Microsoft Points ($49.99), which offers a savings of about $15, as each pack will retail for $14.99. And of course, these packs will debut on Xbox Live as usual. As Hirshberg clarified:
"For Call of Duty: Black Ops II, DLC Map Packs will be a separate offering from Call of Duty Elite. The Season Pass will be a great way to acquire all four Map Packs at a discount, but if our fans would rather take it one Map Pack at a time, then we'll offer each pack á la carte for anyone who wants it. What we aren't doing is requiring a paid membership to access the great player services for Call of Duty: Black Ops II and we're thrilled to offer all of Elite's Call of Duty: Black Ops II features to players for free."
So don't make the mistake of thinking that DLC is free. Elite extras are free, though, so that's something.
Related Game(s): Call of Duty: Black Ops II
They learned that they make more money if they sell you each map pack individually.
New ways to f*ck people in the ass is what they learned.
lol, so they advertised Elite as a way to get all the DLC if you paid for the premium package and now they are saying that map packs will be sold separately?
Yeah… but, you'll need to continue to subscribe to elite as well if you want to keep your MW3 maps you got while being an Elite member!
Warning to Cod-ers out there. Cancel your auto-renewal for elite via PS3, or else come your 1 year anniversary from buying it, you'll be out another $50 for essentially no reason.
Thiefery… they don't even detail the ened to cancel!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW! My friend called and asked about it just to be sure, and I can assure you all that what I say is true. Just terrible.
I'm thinking that they noticed people weren't going to pay for things that they should already have access to..
Clans don't do sh*t, but with friends that's another story.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 10/15/2012 2:46:27 PM
Retarded Brain says: "Must spend more money on C O Deeeeee…"
(I wonder how many old, re-hashed maps they r gonna get people to pay for? Again?)
$$$$$$$$$$$$
Sorry, but whenever I see a CoD article, all I can think of is Greeeeeeed. I know much better DLCs that run at $10, and don't get me started with PSN games that are better than any $15 Map Packs from CoD.
$$$$$$$$$$$$
Lol, I saw this article on IGN. What a joke activision is, and it is amazing that a lot of the comments on IGN were in favour of this but they overlooked one BIG thing.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED well okay like 2 things have changed, now anyone can do some video stuff that only Elite players could do last year but I really doubt any of the casual players used that anyway. Remember everyone could use most of Elites features except for a couple exclusive features that only hardcare players would use anyway. Not to mention Halo did this for free years earlier and Valve has had stat tracking for ever.
But you still have to pay 50 bucks for the map packs, so really they just kind of shifted things over a bit and told everyone Elite was free but what Elite is has essentially changed so it really doesn't matter.
He talks about uniting the community…you know how you do that? You don't segregate the community with a bunch of overpriced map packs. Starhawk had it right, if you want the community to stay together you release free maps. Whats funny is Activision has the money to do this and add dedicated servers but they wont because one they know people will pay for it and two they will abandon this game in a year like they do every other call of duty. After the year is up they don't care about patching the games anymore or anything they just leave them do die.
Such a crazy practice and my mind is boggled that people legitimately support them and defend them.
Not saying CoD isn't a fun game, I had a lot of fun with black ops zombies. But if Activision cant be bothered to tighten up the multiplayer infrastructure and maybe just maybe add dedicated servers, they aren't getting my money. I might buy blops2 used down the line to check out zombies…hell I know I will that mode looks awesome.
Anyway it seems like marketing buzz more than anything. Trying to get people to think that they aren't greedy and are giving back to the players when in reality while they are giving away some features for free(which wouldnt cost them money anyway) which should already be included for free.
If they said all map packs will be free THEN I would have something to get excited for.
Last edited by xenris on 10/15/2012 5:11:50 PM
Interesting… I thought, Elite covered all DLC!
In other words, Elite is pointless.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 10/15/2012 6:27:59 PM
The only reason to install elite was for the map packs – I really hope the new paid seasons pass for the 4 packs downloads each pack as an update when they are released so you have to go hunt for them in the store like last years elite map releases.
Also what sucked was they tried to encourage you to play new modes like 'kill confirmed' through the early release elite maps and wouldn't let you select the mainstay deathmatch as default.
So, now I'm a bit confused…..
other than the map packs still for sale, exactly what features does the FREE Elite vs the PAID Elite give us as gamers???
And for the record, I've only D/L'ed the FREE elite when it 1st became available, but I still haven't opened it up to check what's inside it yet.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/16/2012 4:24:52 AM
Just an FYI for Vita owners….
Hirshberg said Elite definitely won't be integrated into Black Ops Declassified for the Vita.