As expected, Call of Duty: Elite was formally unveiled this morning when the press embargo was lifted. The service will be free to all Call of Duty players but will offer additional content to those members who are paid subscribers. While Activision was mum on a price point for Elite, some details have emerged of what exactly users can expect to see once the service launches on November 8, 2011. If you can’t wait for the big launch, Activision and Beachhead studios will be launching a Beta program this summer that will allow gamers to preview Elite with Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Check out a breakdown of a few of the features that will be available through Call of Duty: Elite after the jump.

Elite will be available through the web and within the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The service will also launch with a mobile app, which will offer all of the features available in the web and console version. Thus far, four sections of the service have been previewed by some select members of the press: Career, Connect, Compete and Improve.

Career

In the Career section of Call of Duty: Elite, players will get to see an overview of game statistics, recent performances, win/loss ratio, experience points, personal bests, weapon performances, and leaderboards. You will be able to easily compare your performances against your friends or other members by simply typing in a username.

Connect

Connect gives users easy access to other players and lets you find specific gametypes that you want to try. You can look for your favorite playlists or gametype, see others who like the specific gametype you’re looking at and then create a match. Connect will also include a theater section where you will be able to create videos of your game performance and share it with others. Think Forge.

Your friends’ list will be integrated into the Connect section to streamline the whole process of creating a match. The section will also feature a Facebook-esque groups option, which will allow members to create and manage their own gaming circles. Group pages will also give players the ability to leave comments on the page, as well as add closed leaderboards just for the members of that specific group.

Compete

This section of Elite is Beachhead’s tournament management service and will offer players the opportunity to compete for actual physical prizes. Details are sparse as of now on how Call of Duty: Elite will support private clans, but this section will surely incorporate support for organizing tournaments between groups, clans, and intra-clan tournaments.

Improve

This portion of the service breaks down gameplay and supposedly helps you become better at Call of Duty online. Players will be able to view detailed images of any map marked up with starting points and objectives, weapons, killstreaks, and provide video guides for those looking to polish their skills.

So What Now?

Activision and Beachhead Studios are certainly taking a risky bet by changing the Call of Duty online mold. The big question that remains unanswered is what the price point will be once Elite launches this fall. However it turns out, it does seem that Activision is confident in its decision to give the go ahead on the online service. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick remarked, “Call of Duty” is in a unique position to seek a monthly fee from customers. The game’s previous installment, set during the Cold War and called “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” was the best-selling game last year, with global retail sales of more than $1 billion during its first six weeks on shelves.”

Just hours before an agreed upon embargo is lifted, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Activision’s new Beachhead studios will be revealing the long rumored Call of Duty subscription service. Dubbed Call of Duty: Elite, the service will work alongside this fall’s Modern Warfare 3 and will be included in all future installments of the franchise.

While there is no word of a price point in the article, Activision executives speaking with the Wall Street Journal said that, “they expect the cost to be less than fees for comparable online-entertainment services, such as a 7.99-a-month Netflix Inc. movie subscription.” Important to note is that this is not a pay wall. Neither the game’s multiplayer mode or Call of Duty: Elite itself will cost players a monthly fee. Instead, portions of Elite will be free and additional content will be offered to subscribers.

Some time after the Wall Street Journal article went live a video of what appears to be the official Call of Duty: Elite trailer was leaked. In addition to confirming that the Call of Duty: Black Ops will also be receiving the Elite treatment, the trailer details the services that will be offered to subscribers. Elite will allow users to form Facebook-like groups with other users, track personal game statistics, and receive detailed analyses of your match performance. Interestingly, the trailer also reveals that the service will offer leagues and tournaments that will reward players with “real prizes.”

You can expect to hear much more about the Activision’s new service bright and early at 9:00AM EST. Personally, I’m interested to see just how Call of Duty: Elite will differentiate itself from certain other FPS giant’s similar offerings.

Source – WSJ

Ever since that reveal in OPM last week, news has been trickling out about the hotly anticipated Modern Warfare 3 bit by bit. Today we can reveal the game’s logo, courtesy of user powertree on The Electric Hydra Forums. At this rate, we might not even have to wait until E3 for the “big reveal”.

UPDATE: The game’s box art seems to have leaked also, check it out in its entirety after the break.

According to the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, “the biggest game in the world” will be returning soon. Yes folks, you guessed it, Modern Warfare 3 is right around the corner.

What? You didn’t honestly think EA’s Battlefield 3 would go without any competition from the Call of Duty franchise, did you? I’m sure we can expect to hear more at E3 next month with the inevitable multimillion-dollar advertising storm shortly after that.

Ever found yourself on the fence about buying a new game? This should get you off it!

There’s some Mirror’s Edge in my Modern Warfare 2!

First Bobby Kotick now this! Whilst playing through Modern Warfare 2’s campaign this morning I noticed this For Lease sign (above). Make what you will of it, the last time I checked though IW stood for Infinity Ward or could it just be coincidence?

Mark the time and the date, we’ve just reached a milestone in gaming! Gone are the days when video games were considered a fad, video games have blasted into orbit and it’s only going to get bigger and better from here on out – or is it?

Like a summer blockbuster the Hans Zimmer composed theme bumped through a large portion of London’s Leicester Square, passers-by stopped on their way home from work, cameras flashed and celebrities finally pulled off that pose they’d spent weeks practicing, this is all strange to me as it’s not often a video game is given the red camouflage carpet treatment.

Dubbed as “the decade’s most anticipated game” you can probably understand the fuss and without checking I’m sure it’s still a trending topic on Twitter – and will be for the rest of the week. So what’s so special about this particular game, big titles like these come out all the time right? Well this one’s a little different, it’s the follow up to the critically acclaimed Call of Duty 4, fans were forced to return to World War II last year due to the Infinity Ward/Treyarch rotation deal and weren’t happy. Two years and £55 later and Activision have created what might be the biggest hype for a title in video game history.

Since I didn’t manage to make it onto the VIP list I watched the event unfold from the crowd, like a West End premiere the stars rolled in one by one from Kevin McKidd (voice of “Soap” MacTavish) to Craig Fairbrass, by 7pm everyone had headed inside and the crowd started clearing. I do wish people like myself were treated to a little game time, celebrities and video games never made much sense to me. It’s a mediocre event when your sitting on the sideline but I guess the closed door strategy definitely added some more buzz to the impending launch.

This really shows how far video games have actually come and I think it’s safe to say as far as premieres go this won’t be the last. Like most fans in attendance we didn’t leave empty handed, Kayla managed to grab one of these before security grabbed her!

While down the West Down this evening I spotted this in the window of Tottenham Court Road’s CEX, for a shocking £75. This doesn’t surprise me from Computer Exchange, if this were Fallout they’d be selling Purified Water for one million bottlecaps – such thieves!