Call of Duty Elite will soon be no more. Activision said it is shutting down its Call of Duty Elite social networking service on Feb. 28.
The Call of Duty Elite service launched in 2011 with a lot of fanfare alongside the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video game. The $50 service gave players extra social features like skill tracking, clan management, and performance analysis of how they did in multiplayer matches.
But the service had a rocky start, with far more people signing up for it than Activision’s servers were able to accommodate. And when service was restored, it was never fast and snappy. Interest began to wane, and Activision dropped Elite from 2012’s Call of Duty Black Ops II.
The company integrated some of the best Elite features into the Call of Duty: Ghosts game last year (with new features like Clan Wars), and now the publisher will integrate it into the main product. Activision said it has begun to wind down its support for prior Call of Duty games. Activision has also added some features to its Call of Duty app that goes with Call of Duty: Ghosts. One of the features I liked best was the after-action report that showed where players, including my own character, got shot the most on a map.
“There are no plans to bring Call of Duty Elite back,” the company said in a FAQ. “We encourage fans to download the Call of Duty app for Call of Duty: Ghosts, which allows players to customize their multiplayer character and weapons loadouts on the go, keep track of their Call of Duty: Ghosts stats, and features Call of Duty Clan Wars, where players can compete for cool, exclusive in-game gear.”
Players will be able to access any of their content store inside a game or uploaded to YouTube.
