Call of Duty Elite was introduced with the launch of Modern Warfare 3.  The premium service for everything Call of Duty was Activision's experiment to extend the product outside the boundaries of the game while providing a premium service for fans of the series.  It also provided regular content updates which were also sold as premium DLC to non-subscribers of the $60 service.  For the most part, it seems Elite was successful, but perhaps it was a bit confusing and burdensome for the more casual player.

It seems as though the gaming industry is truly digging the Call of Duty Elite and Diablo 3 Character Profile style of online stat tracking features, taking notice of how the modern world is truly and frequently on the move. Following in Activision’s footsteps, Capcom has recently announced that their upcoming title, Resident Evil 6, will offer its own version of a free, online, stat-tracking service for all players.

It pleases us to pass along Activision's awesome details of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s final Collection Packs of the Season: Collection #3: “Chaos Pack”, releasing on August 9th with the new Special Ops “Chaos Mode”, three new “Face Off” maps, and four new Special Ops missions, and Collection #4: “Final Assault” releasing on September 6th with five new multiplayer maps to conclude the season.

Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have released details for the next Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC pack, “Collection 2”. If you haven’t already received a message regarding some new achievements that were added to the game, which are currently unobtainable, then listen here and find out what you’re trigger finger will be in store for this May.

Finally, after a long time waiting, those of us who decided to forgoe the Call of Duty Elite bundle can now get their hands on this highly sought after DLC for Modern Warfare 3.

Want to know when you can get your hands on some brand new Spec-Ops missions for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and its two player co-op mode?    Activision has released a schedule for those of you that are Call of Duty: Elite subscribers showcasing all the available DLC and it looks like a steady stream of Spec-Ops content is inbound.

Call of Duty: Elite, Activision's premium service for CoD players is still down - 2 full days after the launch of Modern Warfare 3.  The reason is pretty obvious, they were woefully under prepared for the volume of traffic the website and service was going to do.  This really shouldn't come as a surprise, MMO launches on the PC typically have this problem, and while Elite isn't exactly an MMO launch itself - the scale of it seems to be similar.  Some estimates put Modern Warfare 3 on track to sell over 15 million copies across three platforms by the end of the year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is out tomorrow on the Xbox 360, PlayStation and PC; and with it comes the official launch of Call of Duty Elite - Activision's Free and Premium service used to supplement the Call of Duty experience.  We've already gone into details of what the service will offer to both paying and non-paying customers, but one platform won't have to worry yet about paying the $49.99 for Elite... and that's the PC.

We already know that Call of Duty Elite will offer a bunch of features for free, but what we don't know is exactly what we'll be getting if we decide to subscribe to the service.  During Call of Duty XP this weekend, Activision unveiled the plans for the service.  The cost for a one year subscription is $49.99 and here's what you'll get.

Today Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg was caught blurting out some interesting names while pitching the effectiveness of Call of Duty Elite in getting gamers more involved socially. Actors Jason Bateman ("Arrested Development", The Kingdom, Hancock) and Will Arnett ("Arrested Development", Semi-Pro, Jonah Hex), and director brothers Ridley (Gladiator, Robin Hood, Black Hawk Down) and Tony Scott (Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Man on Fire) have been named as contributors to original content that will be created for Elite.

Tickets which should be of interest to anyone loopy enough for all things Call of Duty will go on sale next Tuesday, July 19th. These tickets grant access to the first ever Call of Duty XP (short for "experience"), held in Los Angeles, California on September 02nd and 03rd.

So you've heard about Call of Duty Elite, and you wonder how any of this is going to impact your game. After all, you're a co-op player, primarily, and wouldn't give two scoops of bantha fodder for competitive stat tracking.