2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta

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.

0 thoughts on “2M Users Sign Up for COD: Elite Beta”

  1. 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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Has Rare Lost Touch With The Gaming Industry?Has Rare Lost Touch With The Gaming Industry?

In an interesting interview this week at 1up.com, Peter Moore, now at Electronic Arts, believes the skillset that Rare holds is a bit dated for our gaming industry. Moore, best known in his role of VP at Microsoft in their Interactive Entertainment Business division, understands how great Rare and their games once were but seems to believe the industry has passed them by.

Looking at their latest Microsoft titles, mainly Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata and Kameo: Elements of Power, it’s not hard to believe his statements as fact. None of the titles have blown away a market full of Grand Theft Autos, Halo’s and other top selling titles. None of their games hit the epic review scores of Bioshock or Crysis. It’s not all first person shooters are taking the big sales numbers; Spore was given rave reviews by online review sites (sans Amazon) and that’s a completely different style of game.

Popcap’s Peggle has had more fame and glory than some of the bigger titles from Rare, probably made with less money. Is Rare a dying breed of developers with no good direction to react to the changing ways of the game industry?

(more…)

Microsoft Confirms Price Cut on 20GB Xbox 360Microsoft Confirms Price Cut on 20GB Xbox 360

If you’re considering the Xbox 360 console, or plan to buy the Xbox 360 Arcade Edition for USD $279.99 please take pause, until the Xbox 360 20GB models dry up, you can now purchase them for USD $299.99. As Microsoft has bluntly stated, get them “while supplies last.”

We’re sure Microsoft is going to take a hit in Arcade sales while these supplies last, but that’s the sacrifice you make for drying up a console SKU and removing it from the market. So, while you can save $50.00 now, you’ll also be able to get a new 60GB model for the same price as the original Xbox 360 Preimum at USD $349.99.

You’ll still be able to purchase the Elite for its epic price of USD $449.99 if you really need the larger disk capacity (120GB). This is an official statement, leading up to E3, so we’ll have to see what Microsoft plans to announce at the event.

Will Sony respond to the price cut now that this is official? Probably not, as the Elite price is the same, the only concern Sony may have is the disk capacity comes closer to their high end console solution.

(more…)

Mass Effect 3: What REALLY Went Wrong, And How To Fix ItMass Effect 3: What REALLY Went Wrong, And How To Fix It

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE DISCUSSES THE ENDING AND EVENTS OF MASS EFFECT 3. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH THE GAME TO BE SPOILED FOR YOU.

In this day and age, one learns to take internet outrage with a heavy dollop of salt. The videogame community tends to be reactionary in the worst way, for a few reasons: they tend to be young, they tend to express their immediate feelings almost as a stream of consciousness, and let’s face it, the Greater Internet Dickwad Theory comes into play as well.

When it comes to game endings, when I hear that the community is upset about a game’s ending, I almost always take that as a good sign that the ending is daring and provocative. For example, there was an outcry over the abruptness of the ending of Halo 2, which had the nerve to conclude with a cliffhanger. The 2009 Prince of Persia reboot ended with the player undoing all of the work to free an ancient evil god they’d just imprisoned.

So when I heard that there was a growing outcry about the endings of Mass Effect 3, my interest peaked, because invariably, that meant the story was provocative and daring, instead of predictable and boring.

(more…)