Well, its finally happened. Starting with Modern Warfare 3 every Call of Duty game going forward will have a subscription fee attached to the games online component. The Wall Street Journal is the first to report about Call of Duty Elite, the long rumored "digital platform" being developed by Activision's Beachhead studio. Elite (as stated) will be a paid service, although "portions of the service will be free" such as a Facebook esq groups feature.
The service will include other features like analyzing players performance "gauging factors such as which weapons have been most successful for them in killing enemies." Don't worry though, you wont have to pay to play online, the WSJ is reporting that "players will still be able to compete against each other online without subscribing to the service."
There is no current price set for the service, though it's expected to be less than other comparable online subscription services such as Netflix ($7.99/month). A portion of the cost will be used for a "customer-service operation" which will be needed for support. All the years map packs will also be included, they usually run for $15 apiece so this helps justify the annual cost.
We'll update this story as more info is released.
