Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Call Of Duty: ELITE May Never Reach PC

By John Walker on November 15th, 2011 at 3:45 pm.

Not so elite after all.

It’s looking like Call Of Duty ELITE may never arrive on PC at all, according to Eurogamer. After it was announced earlier this month that the multiplayer-embellishing feature would be absent from the PC release, along with lots of promises that this was to ensure it was tip-top quality and completely safe, it’s now looking possible we’ll never get to use it.

Making it clear they were committed to the PC, developers Beachhead Studios explained that the PC was “an insecure platform” and required a lot more work to get the system in such a state that people couldn’t cheat it. As Alec mentioned, it seems a touch odd that this was only news to them at the eleventh hour, but hey-do-ho. But, they said, the were “working our butts off to make it happen”.

A tweet from the Call Of Duty Elite official feed, responding to user “TheJuggz” (whose Twitter profile weirdly seems to have disappeared – start your evil Activision conspiracies here), reads:

“We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.”

ELITE hasn’t had the best of times since launch. Servers collapsed under what had to be predictable user demand on launch, forcing them to limit numbers accessing the service from consoles. There have been problems with those who purchased “Founder” accounts not receiving their in-game bonuses. The mobile apps still haven’t been released, due to what they call “instability” with the site and server load, and now the PC version is being spoken of in terms that suggest they’re considering giving up on it.

It all suggests to me a service that simply wasn’t ready by the release of the main game. While clearly dealing with those sorts of numbers of players logging in simultaneously for the biggest game launch in history was always going to be hugely challenging, and was always going to have some glitches, that they can’t even release the mobile apps at this point seems peculiar. And the loss of the PC version – well, that would be something that would have some serious consequences for those who had bought the game on the understanding that it would be available. It’s clear that Beachhead really are working their arses off right now. It’s just a shame that their promising-mouths seem to bigger an awful lot bigger than their delivering-stomachs.

(I think the biggest victim of all this might be the poor person/people who are manning the Beachhead Twitter feed, sending out hundreds and hundreds of support tweets a day.)

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78 Comments »

  1. 15/11/2011 at 15:49 DYDEAD says:

    Oh dear, how will I live on…

    On a more serious note, it seems Kotick has totally given up on consumer support, since people hand over their money regardless.

    Thanks Dice, atleast you try to hide the fact that you just want money.

    What a world we live in ;)

  3. 15/11/2011 at 15:53 iARDAs says:

    I think not purchasing a COD game this year is the best 70 bucks that I did not spend. And I am not a COD hater.

  4. 15/11/2011 at 15:53 RaytraceRat says:

    Nooo… nooo… whyyy? How I gonna play Skyrim now??

  5. 15/11/2011 at 15:56 Coins says:

    Good riddance. PC can do without all these schemes.

  6. 15/11/2011 at 15:57 Thoric says:

    And nothing of value was lost.

  7. 15/11/2011 at 15:58 Teronfel says:

    I don’t care.

  8. 15/11/2011 at 15:58 Dana says:

    PC gamers dont want ELITE.

    PC Gamers want dedicated ranked servers and adjustable FOV, among other things.

    • 15/11/2011 at 16:17 RaveTurned says:

      PC gamers don’t want CoD ELITE.

      PC gamers want ELITE IV!

    • 15/11/2011 at 16:21 Runty McTall says:

      This. The default FOV is bordering on unplayable. I’ve managed about an hour and I was nearly sick.

      It also feels like cheating on the graphics front tbh – “Observe the beautiful effects we can pump out at 60fps… through a toilet roll tube!”

  9. 15/11/2011 at 15:59 alundra says:

    This is it folks, PC gaming is over, just shut down the internet and everyone go home.

  10. 15/11/2011 at 16:00 diamondmx says:

    I’m not clear on what exactly is being missed out on – isn’t it basically just another dumb facebook clone like Battlelog with no real purpose?

    I’m sure it sucks for people who paid for a game advertised as having this feature, and I think ActiBlizMoneybags owes a serious (and probably financial) apology if they drop the advertised feature. But are they really losing anything worth having?

    Still on the fence about buying this in whatever form – how is the PC port? Is it crap like I hear MW2 PC was?

    • 15/11/2011 at 16:37 DrGonzo says:

      MW2 port was fine for me, would run at 60fps on pretty much a toaster. Cod Blops on the other hand wouldn’t run smoothly for me at all, so I’ve never played it through. That was on a quad core @2.7ghz and a 4850.

      What I played of Blops however was terrible. MW2 wasn’t that bad I thought, even though many hated it. It was Blops that made me sick of Cod. So many flashing lights and swooshy things going on constantly without even a minute of calm or silence, did my head in.

  11. 15/11/2011 at 16:02 SquareWheel says:

    Hooray!

  12. 15/11/2011 at 16:04 Tuor says:

    “We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.”

    I guess this means that PCs exist in a different Universe than the one occupied by Elite.

    Thank goodness.

  13. 15/11/2011 at 16:05 JackDandy says:

    And nothing of value was lost.

  14. 15/11/2011 at 16:06 mingster says:

    I don’t need Elite.
    But i do need the joypad to work in MW3.
    I cannot believe it doesn’t have support for a joypad in a game that is ported from a console.

  15. 15/11/2011 at 16:07 Stevostin says:

    OMG the game logo.

    • 15/11/2011 at 16:12 Hoaxfish says:

      that skull looks seriously miffed, with that squashed/missing jaw + frowny face

    • 15/11/2011 at 17:03 Synesthesia says:

      this. There should be an entire rps feature on it and the emboss button. Just… look at it! WHO SPILLED MY BUCKET O’ CHROME ON MY GUNSKULL

    • 15/11/2011 at 18:41 MonolithicTentacledAbomination says:

      Yeah, shouldn’t the emblem for Call of Duty be a little more, I don’t know, respectful or something? I realize that now it’s all about guns and owning and teabagging and racism, but once upon a time Call of Duty paid some lip service to the harsh realities of war. Crossing the Volga(?) as a Red Army trooper in the original game…

    • 15/11/2011 at 18:48 Hoaxfish says:

      harsh realities of war. Crossing the Volga(?) as a Red Army trooper in the original game…

      Many bags were tea’d that day, so many bags.

  16. 15/11/2011 at 16:09 pmouse says:

    I liked cod 2

  17. 15/11/2011 at 16:09 Hoaxfish says:

    PCs are just too L33t for Elite, zomg teh haxxors!

    Why design this stuff if you suddenly realise “oh, well, PC has pirates/hackers… let’s use that as an excuse NOT to do the feature we raved about”

  18. 15/11/2011 at 16:10 Giant says:

    Its somewhat ironic that they say PC’s are insecure after making the decision that PC ranked play would be P2P only. If they’d gone the BF3 route of only allowing commercial providers to host ranked servers it would have probably been the best compromise between P2P and Dedicated servers.

    Granted the BF3 method of commercial hosts only isn’t ideal either but it at least neatly sidesteps the “PC is an insecure platform”.

    That said as metioned in the article this sounds more like a “elite is broken and PC is dead last in priority” rather than anything else though.

  19. 15/11/2011 at 16:12 sneetch says:

    Wow, not that I’m particularly arsed one way or the other (I’m pretty much only interested in MW3 and BF3 co-op for now) it does make me go “hmmmmmm” when you look at the timeline here and you realise that they told us they were working on it for PC, released the game on PC, got their sales and now are (possibly) weaseling out of it. I don’t know how many people would really be put off buying the game if they had told us in advance that Elite wouldn’t be coming out on PC but surely someone has to care. Or maybe not.

  20. 15/11/2011 at 16:18 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:

    Because no hacks or exploits were ever used on consoles in MW2, right?

  21. 15/11/2011 at 16:23 scorcher24 says:

    As long as it does not affect Skyrim, everything is fine.

  22. 15/11/2011 at 16:35 Refael says:

    Hey activision:

    I like to be dined and wined before i get FUCKED!

  23. 15/11/2011 at 16:46 Sinomatic says:

    whoopsidaisy!

    (I just wanted to say it again).

  24. 15/11/2011 at 16:48 yhalothar says:

    No problems on this end. Carry on!

  25. 15/11/2011 at 16:52 Mozai says:

    I saw “ELITE” and I thought “what? But Elite was already on the PC, it was ported from the BBC Micro decades ago. Does this mean… there will be a new space-exploration game of Elite? Oh boy!”

    But then I saw it’s about yet another army-life-is-glamourous shooter game.

    On a related note: people keep talking about “MW2″ coming out and I always think “but MechWarrior 2 is already out. I still have the CD and I still listen to the audio tracks.”

  26. 15/11/2011 at 16:55 Mr_Initials says:

    Oh no. stop. please. what will i live for.

  27. 15/11/2011 at 17:01 shoptroll says:

    Since the game runs on Steamworks anyways, couldn’t they just do a custom stats page for each player like Valve does? Elite seems a bit redundant to me given the features Steam provides.

  28. 15/11/2011 at 17:49 Zarunil says:

    I don’t see what this has to do with my Skyrim.

  30. 15/11/2011 at 18:29 pagad says:

    AND NOT A SINGLE FUCK WAS GIVEN THAT DAY

  31. 15/11/2011 at 20:28 somini says:

    Most of the functions it was supposed to implement are already available for Steam, making Steam AND Elite as redundant as EA and evil…

  32. 15/11/2011 at 20:30 ffordesoon says:

    This kind of makes me want to buy the PC version more than the console one.

  33. 15/11/2011 at 20:33 d00d3n says:

    Why has this game not been reviewed by the RPS team? Some grudge about not receiving a review copy in advance for the PC? Still not getting a copy even after release and refusing to review because of this? General boredom with the franchise and/or specific issues with the game that put the game low on the review priority list in these busy times? As a protest against the consolification and simplification of mass market games largely because of the successful implementation of these aspects in the cod franchise?

    All of the above?

    • 15/11/2011 at 23:25 Groove says:

      Almost certainly 3) “General boredom with the franchise and/or specific issues with the game that put the game low on the review priority list in these busy times?”

      They only review games they’re interested in. Whether CoD is good or not, it’s certainly not that interesting.

    • 16/11/2011 at 01:04 The Colonel says:

      Not too many customers for that one I suspect.

  34. 15/11/2011 at 21:48 KikYu0 says:

    uhm.. i bought it cuz they told us they will get elite work on pc.. and now they say – maybe they wont ? ;/
    what a bad joke.. i will ask steam for a refund >_>

  35. 15/11/2011 at 22:18 Hellfire257 says:

    Hey RPS, this might interest you. It’s about the review bombing of BF3 and MW3. Very good post IMO.

    http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654624746269930/

  36. 15/11/2011 at 22:57 coledognz says:

    While I don’t care about elite so much, the game was designed around having it (namely there are no ranked dedicated servers outside of Activision’s “official” servers, which renders this game broken on PC, because the only way to rank up is through peer to peer pubs (lol wut? More secure than dedicated servers? Come on Activision: it’s not)

    To remedy this I’d like to see a patch released to allow all dedicated servers that meet a certain rule-set criteria be ranked.

  37. 15/11/2011 at 23:50 Etherealsteel says:

    I didn’t buy MW3 and glad I did. I call the COD series the John Madden of FPS. Well they at least did dedicated servers this time. I can see them just totally abandoning PC support given how so many bought it for console.

  38. 15/11/2011 at 23:50 FRIENDLYUNIT says:

    Excuse me please. I must go and gnash my teeth, wail and tear out my hair. Then I will rub ashes on my face.

  39. 16/11/2011 at 01:03 zoombapup says:

    Hold on a sec. Didnt I read that actiblizzard had aimed at like 45% of its revenue to come from online gaming? Or was that EA?

    Either way, if you think online gaming surely you’re thinking PC online gaming? Online never seemed to be a big deal on console for me at least.

    Either way, who cares. Another opportunity for someone else.

  40. 16/11/2011 at 01:04 zoombapup says:

    Werent acti meant to be trying to boost their online revenues? Seems like a backwards step. Not that I particularly care.

  41. 16/11/2011 at 01:49 V. Profane says:

    I’m quite sure they never intended to spend the money required to have their systems working for day 1 because that would bet too much investment for too little return; people are going to pay up anyway. It’s the same as ISPs and webhosts selling more bandwidth than they can handle because they know that most of their customers won’t use what they’re theoretically entitled to.

  42. 16/11/2011 at 06:32 Screamer says:

    Thanks Activation… but I already gave EA my money… maybe next year ;)

    Sincerely

    Happy Battlelog user

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