Call of Duty: Elite is raising eyebrows and filling gamers with a kind of religious fervor that is often seen during an industry paradigm shift, with what some consider an infringement on their beloved IP, an exploitative opportunity by Activision and the icon it's fashionable to hate, Mr. Bobby Kotick. Before we go any further, this is an opinion piece, so feel free to click off if you’re looking for the latest news.
Call of Duty: Elite will offer a subscription based value added service, likened to the sort of fee that Netflix is currently using.
While I would love to link to the hundreds of threads and thousands of ravenous gamers calling for blood since the announcement yesterday, Examiner rules forbid me to link to these posts that are filled with profanity – a quick bit of Google-fu should provide you with ample examples of the outrage over this optional upgrade, coming down after customers are already paying for a game box and DLC as well.
The thing is, this righteous indignation is completely misplaced. While the upgrade may or may not be truly “optional” depending on how things shake down, the players will vote with their wallets, and if we’ve learned anything over the last 10 years it’s that even the most rabid fans that are frothing over this new methodology are going to crack open their coin purses when push comes to shove when all is said and done.
Concerns have been expressed by communities opposing the Call of Duty: Elite model that the possible success of such a practice will lead to more subscription based implementation across the board to other titles, mediums, and games.
And guess what, there probably will be some trickledown effect if Call of Duty: Elite takes off . So what? Payment models for games are in a constant state of flux, and if the playerbase finds them acceptable they will play the games. If they don’t, they are free to decline – Being “forced” to play a game is one of the most ludicrous statements I’ve ever heard.
It’s always surprising to me that you can always find these perfect examples, these “outraged” players of whatever title you can imagine, that fill mighty tomes and volumes condemning how this or that will “kill” a game and that company XYZ is out to exploit their players – and yet, these same people have never let their subscription lapse, don’t consider other competitive titles, and speak solely about said game. Talk about a love-hate relationship.
Feel free to express how the subscription model will kill Call of Duty, and how Call of Duty: Elite is the great corrupter of souls masterminded by fiends. Just don’t let me catch you signed up on day one because you “had to get the maps.”
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