Call of Duty Elite premium membership explained, mobile apps incoming

[jkipp82]

Here's the thing about Call of Duty Elite so far: It's confusing.

Even Chacko Sonny, studio head of Beachhead Studios, agrees that the information shared about the service hasn't exactly been clear. "There's been a lot of review internally in the organization in terms of how that message was presented," he told us at Call of Duty XP this weekend. "It's tough to say -- I think people wanted to understand it in its entirety as opposed to in pieces."

There's a good reason for the segmented information delivery, according to Activision's Vice President of Digital, Jamie Berger. "The tie to showing everything, including the price, was really tied to doing it in lockstep with Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer," he says. "The only way to explain in the end what you were going to get, truly, was to show it with Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. ... And yes, that did mean we were going to have to hold back some information until we were able to frankly put it all on the table with the Infinity Ward team. We decided it was better to take the hit that way than on the development side to take the hit by holding back the beta."

Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer had its official reveal last night, so Activision can finally talk about what Call of Duty Elite's premium membership entails. The price, we can tell you now, will be $49.99 a year. And what's included in that package is listed right after the break.