Call of Duty Elite Delayed on PC
by Craig Getting on November 4, 2011 1:09 PM EST- Posted in
- Gaming
- Activision
- Call of Duty
Activision’s grand plan to create a Call of Duty social network, Call of Duty Elite, just ended its beta and will be up and running for consoles when Modern Warfare 3 releases next week. It will not, however, be ready for the PC.
Call of Duty Elite’s main appeal for fans of the franchise is the premium membership, which offers competitions, training videos, and $60 worth of DLC (in addition to all the free stat-tracking and social features) for $49.99. Beachhead has said that, while Activision will be selling map packs for the PC, they won’t be offering the premium Elite membership on PC anytime soon. And they are still working on the free version.
“The issue here is that the PC is an insecure platform,” Beachhead Studio’s Chacko Sonny told Activision blogger Dan Amrich. “Without a central, trusted resource for stats, a lot of our competition features become unfair. We can’t give away prizes when people can easily cheat their stats. Leaderboards are less fun when a lot of the users are there unfairly.”
Activision and the three studios behind Modern Warfare 3 (Beachhead included) haven’t shunned the PC audience entirely: dedicated servers will be supported at launch. But Call of Duty is a console franchise now, and Elite is a service designed to make money off that audience. Elite will come to the PC eventually, but they likely won’t rush it unless they’re sure they can monetize it.
Source: OneOfSwords via Joystiq
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Chapbass - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
Seriously, and what a shame it is. I remember sitting down around Christmas time, I was still in school at the time and we were on winter break. I had just gotten the original Call of Duty as a gift, and I remember being completely blown away by it. The level of intensity, the sound of the MG42's firing overhead and the explosions were something on a completely different level.I played it all night until I beat it, and it was still one of the best experiences I've had gaming. Then they went and ruined it with the CONSTANT gunfire of the Modern Warfare series, and now its just a console moneymaker. Really sad :(
euler007 - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
I guess all the people running leaked copy of Skyrim on Xbox 360 didn't get the memo (no PC leaks, steamworks).It is only as insecure as they let it be. They could only keep stats of people playing on their approved servers for their purpose.
Exodite - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
This.The PC isn't an insecure platform, only their software solution is.
It's like companies still making use of punkbuster to "secure" their software in this day and age.
nevertell - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
If they'd want to, they could implement it without any real problems. Just have Rated servers which have to pass through authorization and have unrated servers which anyone can set up and run. You don't even have to have people do it, just create a server-side DRM.anactoraaron - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
"We can’t give away prizes when people can easily cheat their stats."So they admit it's really their problem with regard to the software. Then do a better job making it secure from cheats.
Typical industry move nowadays - make something for the consoles then try to port it to pc. That just doesn't work. So stop trying to do that! The process should be the opposite. I would imagine it would be easier to dumb something down for a console than try to enhance something for a pc with hardware that exceeds the typical console.
Mumrik - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
Yeah... no hacked or manipulated scores on the consoles. Not at all...JKflipflop98 - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
I work with a guy that plays x360 games on live from his laptop. Cheating isn't hard for people like him.MarioJP - Saturday, November 5, 2011 - link
Well there you have it. Same o battle that has always plagued the PC. That's ok thought Activision has poor track record anyways. We have Battlefield 3 to be content with. meh.fdfsxcvdcfdh - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
ONLINE STOR good shoppingQuake - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Meh... We have BF3 in the PC that supports up tp 64 players. No need for that Call of Duty crap.