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Call of Duty Elite promises stability, Friday Night Fights to debut this Friday

Now that Elite has hopefully worked out most of the kinks (fingers crossed), we can finally begin to see everything that the premium service has to offer. If you have been following anything at all about the game, then you have probably already heard that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a hit, with over $775 million sold in just five days. But the launch was not without its problems, especially when it came to the Call of Duty Elite service.

Elite offers both a free and premium service, and Activision has confirmed that over one million users have signed up for the premium version. Included with the annual $49.99 fee are all the planned DLCs, year round competitions for huge real-life prizes, additional online functionality, and much more. It is an appealing offer for fans, and the cost of the DLCs alone justify the purchase, but the service has the potential to be much more. When it works.

Since the launch of Modern Warfare 3, the Elite service has been intermittent at best. The log-in has been problematic, the stats have appeared and disappeared, and the additional content has been inaccessible. To its credit,  the developer Beachhead Studios has owned up to the problems and issued several statements explaining the nature of the problems. On top of that they have also added a complimentary month of premium service to those that are already signed up.

It now appears that Beachhead is mostly on top of things, and it has claimed that the service will reach its full potential on December 1. But leading up to that, users can expect to see more and more functionality added each day.

One of the features that is exclusive to the premium subscribers is Elite TV, which will provide new and original content based on Call of Duty. The first program to debut will be “Friday Night Lights,” a program that will pit rival groups (or people) against each other via Modern Warfare 3. Each side will have a professional gaming coach to help them prepare, and the prize purse will be donated to charity.

The series is being executive produced by Tony and Ridley Scott’s RSA films in conjunction with Activision. The first episode was scheduled to debut on November 11, but technical difficulties forced it to be pushed back.

“From the beginning, our goal with Call of Duty ELITE has been to bring the Call of Duty community together in new ways. Fans of Call of Duty spend as much time playing the game, as sports fans spend following their favorite teams-if not more. So we figured, if sports fans get all kinds of shows outside of the games to feed their passion, why not do the same thing for Call of Duty fans?” Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision said in a statement.

“When you’re working with the likes of executive producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, the production values don’t get any higher. And the Call of Duty community deserves nothing less. We want to give people new ways to connect with the game they love. That’s what Call of Duty ELITE is about, and Friday Night Fights is just the beginning.”

The first episode will pit two teams of players against each other, highlighting one of the oldest rivalries in America: Army vs. Navy. The episode will air live this Friday, November 25 at noon, then be streamed for replay. New episodes will air each Friday throughout the show’s first season, and more original content is on the way in the coming weeks.

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Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is official and it’s coming this November
call of duty modern warfare iii release date makarov mwiii

Activision has confirmed a November 10 release date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III with a teaser trailer following a barrage of leaks.
The shooter, which is going to be a direct sequel to 2022's Modern Warfare II, was the subject of lots of reports and leaks prior to this announcement. Reports from Bloomberg revealed that this game was originally going to be a Modern Warfare II expansion, but it later got upgraded to a full game. Then, over the summer, more game details started to leak before some Monster Energy advertisements revealed the game's title prematurely. Activision coyly acknowledged this leak on Twitter at the time, but finally pulled the curtain back on the project today with a video titled "Modern Warfare III is Coming."
Modern Warfare III is Coming
It begins with some green soundwaves on-screen and a lot of radio chatter in the background. Then, the soundwaves turn from green to red before the perspective then pushes into them, creating a trippy red void. In there, we briefly see waveform images of a snake and Captain Price before he says, "Never bury your enemies alive" over the silhouette of a new character. This is believed to be Vladimir Makarov, the villain of the original Modern Warfare trilogy, who was teased in the post-credit scene for last year's campaign. After all of that, the title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is confirmed, as is the release date of November 10.

This date falls right in line with the late October to early November window in which Call of Duty games usually come out. It also places its launch after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to be complete, so it looks like this may be the first Call of Duty game released under Microsoft. Other than that date, official details on the game are fairly scarce. Thankfully, we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to learn more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launches on November 10. 

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Call of Duty: Warzone devs share the design secrets of the best battle royale map
Overhead shot of Vondel map in Warzone.

The Vondel map in Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the best battlegrounds in the history of the battle royale genre. It's a small-scale, densely packed map with a wide variety of points of interest (POIs) that feel distinct. Modeled after European cities, Vondel is a feat of level design as it simultaneously feels fun and functional. It's a city that you can truly imagine as a real place, with a slew of different shops to enter, a canal, and even a water taxi service that moves throughout the map.

But behind the scenes, there are countless design choices that help the flow and pacing of the map. To get a better sense of just what makes this map work so well, I spoke with Beenox Senior Level Designer Fred Wilson and Lead Artist Guillaume Alain. The duo revealed how Vondel's composition seeps into the players' subconscious, with intuitive design choices that work better than any Warzone map that's come before.
Pacing is king

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has seemingly leaked thanks to Monster
Five main characters from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

It looks like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be the title of this year's Call of Duty game. Following several leaks, including an undeniable one connected to Monster Energy, a joking tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account appears to confirm that this is true.
Leaks suggesting that 2023's Call of Duty game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III have existed for months, but ramped up recently. On July 17, the Call of Duty Twitter account put up tweets asking if Operators, weapons, and bundles from Modern Warfare II should carry over to this year's game and teasing that a big reveal would happen alongside the unveiling of Season 5. Later that day, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier stated that this is a Sledgehammer Games-led project that started as an expansion and morphed into a full game.
Then, Monday morning, images of Monster Energy promotional materials connected to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III emerged on Twitter, giving us confirmation of the name and our first look at the game's logo.

A leak like this is pretty difficult to deny, so Activision decided to play along with it. "Whew. Mondays," the official Call of Duty account tweeted. "Anyone have an energy drink they can spare?"
While not a traditional, explicit announcement, this tweet confirms the validity of the Monster Energy leak and affirms that this year's Call of Duty will be a direct follow-up to 2022's Modern Warfare II. Now, we'll just have to wait and see when Activision decides to officially reveal more about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III itself. 
Because it's not officially announced yet, we don't know what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's release date or launch platforms are. Still, it's likely that it will launch across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox sometime this October or November after Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition closes. 

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