The Call of Duty Elite launch has been less than successful, as pointed out by Josh in a previous article, this much is known. The social network platform designed around the Call of Duty franchise has been plagued with issues ranging from server crashes due to user demand, and there have apparently been unfulfilled promises having to do with the “Founder” accounts.
Furthermore, the CoD Elite mobile app hasn’t hit yet, and as discussed previously, there are many functionality issues that are severely limiting the service. And then there’s the “no PC support” issue, with Elite only being available to console players. All in all, it sounds like a back to the drawing board situation, but because Activision has already committed itself to the Elite platform, they are trying to fix it on the fly, and that’s going about as well as you’d expect.
According to a report from Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the “Elite is temporarily unavailable for the PC” may turn into a “permanently unavailable” scenario, because, apparently, the PC system is just too insecure. The post pointed to a tweet from Call of Duty Elite Twitter page to substantiate their post, and the tweet in question says:
@CallOfDutyElite
Call of Duty Elite@thejuggz We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.
5 hours ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto
Granted, with so many more people playing Modern Warfare 3 on the Xbox 360 than the other platforms — nothing like using inferior tech, I guess — does it really matter if Elite is available to the PC users? More to the point, with so many console users, does Activision care enough about the PC environment to actually force the issue and ensure PC users get a working version? Considering the fact the current service is struggling so much, it’s doubtful.
As for the insecurity of the PC environment, as pointed out by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, isn’t this something that should’ve been discussed during the early development days? Or do they want us to believe they only discovered it at this late date? Personally, I don’t think the lack of security has anything to do with the lack of Elite service for PC players. It’s clear that Xbox 360 players are the target audience, and the rest of gaming community, while getting some semblance of service, you get the distinct feeling that once Elite works as advertised for the Xbox crowd, the resources being thrown at it will shrink.
In other news, I believe I’ve found a great definition for irony over at the CoD Elite website, especially in light of negative news about the PC platform. Even with the uncertainty surrounding the service, that hasn’t stopped their graphic designers from using an image of laptop, otherwise known as a member of the PC family, on their site.
Wishful thinking, perhaps.