Though Call of Duty Elite has proven to be massively popular, recording 1.5 premium subscribers and seven million members total, its launch wasn’t without a few issues. At this year’s DICE summit, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg commented on the launch woes of the service, and owned up to a lot of the mistakes.
“We had some technological stumbles at launch and that frustrated some of our fans. We're still making that right,” Hirshberg said. “But if we only talk about the things that go as planned then we miss some of the most valuable dialogue that can come out of this.”
The hiccups Elite met at launch didn’t go a long way in assuaging gamers that the premium service was worth the price of entry, but Hirshberg believes Activision made the right choice in how they revealed what Elite was. “We chose to tell people right out of the gate that while the vast majority of features would be free, there would be a premium membership. A lot people thought we should have waited (to) show people what they get for the premium membership before talking about its existence,” he said. “But we knew this question about whether it would be free would immediately be asked. We'd be put on the spot. We chose to be transparent and tell people our intentions from the beginning. The words 'Call of Duty' plus the word 'subscription' equals 'unleash blogger hell.’”
The Elite service seems to be running much smoother now, but Hirshberg still isn’t quite satisfied. “Even though we've had some early success with the numbers, it's far from time for us to be doing any victory laps on Elite,” he said. With Activision and Infinity Ward continuing to plug away at making Elite a better product, perhaps one day Hirshberg will be satisfied with the company’s progress.
SOURCE: Activision admits to bungled Call of Duty Elite launch [GamesIndustry]
