Call of Duty Elite at full strength by 1st December

By Fred Dutton Published 18 November, 2011

Beachhead discusses troubled launch.

The full Call of Duty Elite experience should be up and running by 1st December, developer Beachhead Studios has promised.

Speaking in an interview with G4TV, production VP Daniel Suarez asked for a little more patience from users keen to use the hobbled service.

"It was our fault that the service wasn't up and running the day [fans] put in their token or the day they bought it," admitted Suarez.

"They kind of have to bear with us while we bring this all back up, but for us it's literally 'Give us those couple weeks, we're giving those to you for free and come December 1st the goal is that we'll have everything up and running.'"

Suarez also offered a little insight into what exactly caused the problems that have seen many users shut out of the service since launch earlier this month.

"When we ran our beta, [it] was strictly on the PC and a lot of our assumptions were based around [the idea] that a larger majority of users were going to use the PC [interface] since it's a more robust version of the service than the console app. Some of that may have been incorrectly analysed, because we're seeing 80 to 90 per cent of our users coming straight from the console app.

"So the way we've had to balance out the way that's feeding the community is different. Right now we're retrofitting that so that that works better across the board rather than the way it was set up."

He also clarified a statement earlier this week, suggesting the PC hub may never see the light of day. Turns out that was a little wide of the mark.

"It was a mistake," explained Suarez. "Our goal is to get something on the PC. We haven't set timing yet, but our goal is to do that."

Apparently the main area of concern with the PC version is how to keep cheaters and hackers at bay.

"On the PC, that's an open platform [which is] more prone to cheats and hacks. We're trying to prevent them as much as possible, but that platform isn't as secure.

"As we're doing competitions and more things specific to stats and generating those stats and creating leaderboards for people, we don't want to create a situation where the service itself becomes invalidated by people having crazy stats because they've been able to do something to the game."

Activision has announced that all premium subscribers will have 30 days access added to their accounts free-of-charge as a goodwill gesture for the teething problems.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 6 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ballshock #1 6 months ago

    They fucking spend millions advertising elite being the best thing ever, and didn't expect so many people to use it? Ridiculous

  • bobdebob #2 6 months ago

    Bet most people are using the free bit, I know I am. A free trial wouldn't hurt to check out the competitons going.

  • 00.00.01 #3 6 months ago

    "...and a lot of our assumptions were based around..."
    An assumption is the mother of all cock-ups. Basics in governing, therefore I am slightly surprised to hear this from the VP!
    He even states that "80 to 90 per cent of our users coming straight from the console app". That's a lot, this is not a miscalculation, these numbers scream epic fail. And I don't really understand why the platform that he states was to be expected to be used the most is missing. If you really thought that the majority of users would use the more robust PC-interface for Elite, why is it not working then.
    Still not really in touch with the community, eh? Just with their wallets...

    *interpunction corrected*
    Edited by 00.00.01 at 18/11/11 @ 21:25

  • el_pollo_diablo #4 6 months ago

    He also clarified a statement earlier this week, suggesting the PC hub may never see the light of day. Turns out that was a little wide of the mark.

    "It was a mistake," explained Suarez. "Our goal is to get something on the PC. We haven't set timing yet, but our goal is to do that."

    Translation: it'll never happen, but I got shouted at for telling people and have had to retract my statement to make it sound more like a 'maybe'.
    Edited by el_pollo_diablo at 18/11/11 @ 21:33

  • DirectAim #5 6 months ago

    Im taking my hardened edition back to game and asking for a FULL refund, this is bollocks, trading standards need to get involved, these companies make billions and have figures from previous game sales to give a fucking good indication of the huge numbers involved, they are selling unfinished products! If I remember correctly this isn't the first time for Activision!

  • Rajin #6 6 months ago

    @DirectAim

    Neither the first time you put your faith in the wrong company sadly,

    With all those millions you would think they'll spend at least a bit on their customers, instead it'll probaly turn into stockholders dividend.
    Edited by Rajin at 18/11/11 @ 21:53

  • Nephirion #7 6 months ago

    Cunts

  • telboy007 #8 6 months ago

    So this free 30 days... does this mean Activision will be reducing the period of elite membership by a month? ;)

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 6 months ago

    This fiasco, gonna stay with people, maybe not everyone but a portion of them. I lost any interest in Elite and so had my real life mates, not been since problems getting registered logging in etc

    My another attempt at MMO was a total shit and fan scenario, as a result never been back since buying collector edition of FFIV which gathers dust on my shelf.

    Bad first impression can really matters, it's does for me, maybe shouldn't but I just automatically drop off my radar totally anything that disappoint me, waste my time etc.

    Will TAKE a lot of earning points to win back my attention, all the best!

  • alexbulluk #10 6 months ago

    They advertise CoD as the biggest franchise in history, and they didn't expect many people to use it.

    ... good work.

  • metallicorphan #11 6 months ago

    Activision has announced that all premium subscribers will have 30 days access added to their accounts free-of-charge as a goodwill gesture for the teething problems.


    yeah but most of us are waiting for you to sort this shit out before becoming premium

  • davisorle #12 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • matty_matt_mattmatt #13 6 months ago

    Beachhead n00b Studios

  • Freek #14 6 months ago

    Beachhead studios:"Hey, so uhm, this Call of the Duty thing, is that popular? I mean, we can handel a couple thousands log-ins, that should be enough, right?"

    **reads sales figures**

    Beachhead studios: "...oh we're fucked."

  • Pwnsweet #15 6 months ago

    Good. I've been wondering why there hasn't been an option for Call of Duty Elite on the Wii version. So It'll show up on Dec 1st then?

  • Nephirion #16 6 months ago

    Announce a service to boost sales, then fail to deliver. Once they got your cash, they don't give a shit, I implore people not to buy any of the MW3 map packs and to vote with your wallets.

  • Trigg3rHippie #17 6 months ago

    PR is clearly not their cup of tea.

  • Al_Swearengen #18 6 months ago

    Can everyone please stop giving Activision your money? I fail to see why anyone would want to pay for this service. It's crap like this that reassures Activision in their belief that gamers will pay for any old shit providing it carries the COD brand.
    At this rate they are never going to give IW the cash to spend on building a new game engine. Why should they when millions of people will rush out and buy their sh*tty annual incremental updates.

    The next console generation start in perhaps 1 year if recent rumours hold true. What kind of COD game can we expect for the next gen? I doubt very much it will come with a brand new engine. It'll be more of same because people will buy it.