Activision’s Dan Amrich posted in his One of Swords blog that two million users have signed up Call of Duty: Elite‘s beta, who said the number “blew his mind” when “they hit that number in less than two weeks. That should give the dev team at Beachhead plenty to work with to kick off the beta, which officially starts July 14.”
“The official start of the beta is a month away, so there’s still plenty of time for you to sign up. When the studio head at Beachhead said this would be a live beta, he was not kidding — your participation really can make a difference in how Elite evolves,” added Amrich, “And don’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better. Once you’ve signed up, just watch your email inbox for an invite.”
The 2M beta applications aren’t necessarily an endorsement for Elite. Rather, users are probably curious to see the beta and if it pleases them. The paid subscription portion reportedly only represents 10% of Elite, anyway, and is aimed at more “professional” and “hardcore” gamers, aka clans.
Users can apply for the beta here.
Much like Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony is looking for LittleBigPlanet to move consoles from the shelves because all types of gamers are going to want this title. Personally, the desire to want and the stronger feeling of need are two separate problems; everyone will want the game but many will need to buy a PlayStation 3 for MSRP.
Why release a single block buster game with a two week pop when you can simply lower the price of your console and boost sales by 100%? That’s a question Sony may be asking themselves right now, as Metal Gear Solid 4‘s hype may have lasted years but the sales and console unit sale boots lasted a month.
I still don’t like COD: Elite.
Here’s the deal: each time I see a profit scheme based on a service, I see a margin compression opportunity.
I’ll explain a bit further: when somebody asks money because of the content they built (like DLC) I don’t have an issue. It’s somebody’s effort, they should get payed.
When somebody asks money in return of a service (99% of the cases provided by a server/machine/automated process), I see somebody else that will do that for less money, or even for free. I mean if that will get them extra customers, why not?
In case of COD:Elite, I see an opportunity for Steam to improve. And I will love to hear from this new service (for elites :P) in 2 years from now.