It’s hard to believe that there are a set of FAQs already about the service that Activision is planning on implementing in order to scrape more money from the pockets of gamers by taking 
content out of their titles and making you pay for it via an online service. Either way, they put out an FAQ about it so we can all see just how they’ll do it. The following is all from them. I bolded some statements that we will later call them on if they don’t stick to it.
They say that it will take nothing away from the game experience in the free version and will only add to it, but from the initial announcement it certainly sounded like there would be some things taken out of the upcoming games.
They also state that all DLC for MW3 will be included and you won’t need to buy (in the premium so you’ll need to balance price of DLC versus price of monthly subscription for some amount of time).
Before we get to some FAQs regarding Call of Duty Elite, we want to share three guiding principles of the service.
GIVING YOU MORE THAN EVER BEFORE (AND TAKING NOTHING AWAY) -
With over 30 million online players around the world, the Call of Duty community is too large and diverse to create a one size fits all approach, and Call of Duty Elite must be purely additive to the experience. The Call of Duty “out of the box” experience that our players expect: a great single player campaign, co-op missions, and the deepest and most accessible multiplayer anywhere -- at no additional cost -- remains the same as ever. Our promise to you is this: Elite only adds to the Call of Duty experience. Nothing will be taken away from the experience you know and love. If you want to continue to play Call of Duty as you always have, you will still be able to do just that, including the ability to buy Map Packs ala carte. With Call of Duty Elite, we’re adding a new choice for those who want to get even more out of the game. Even haters can play for free.
THE BEST FREE SERVICE ON THE MARKET – How can we say that this is the best? We believe that the free elements of Call of Duty Elite will be superior to any free service currently on the market because we are offering more features than any other service out there. Additionally, many of Elite’s free features which will debut with Modern Warfare 3 are industry firsts and offer a new level of innovation.
Elite’s free features let you:
- Access Elite through the web as well as Elite’s free custom iOS and Android applications for smartphones and tablets
- Communicate any way you want across mobile, console and the web with your friends
- Track and share thousands of stats with friends – k/d ratios, score-per-minute, win % and loads more, all represented in easy to understand charts and infographics
- Create your own custom leaderboards to track friendly rivalries – who is moving up and down in your group of friends?
- Analyze advanced heat maps detailing your match-by-match performance – where you killed or got killed, when it happened, and more
- Analyze your weapons performance – which weapons you are best with in which situations
- Upload and share videos of your greatest moments through our exclusive theater mode with the touch of a button
- After you analyze your performance to your heart’s content - Customize your loadout – search through all the weapons, attachments and perks, and push them directly into the game menu from the web or your mobile device with the touch of a button
- Join dozens of groups and find other players with common interests to play with and compete against – find people who make the game the most fun for you – TDM, Lakers’ fans, Weekend Warriors
- Create a Clan with players who share your interests and taste for competition
- Bring your Facebook friends right into the game, easily taking your existing network into the Call of Duty experience.
- Seamlessly be placed into Groups with those who share your affinities and interests based on your Facebook profile.
- Start tracking your Call of Duty career – everything you wanted to know about your performance across the franchise starting with Black Ops
And that’s just the beginning. The service will continue to evolve and we will continue to add new features.
A PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP THAT RESETS THE BAR - The premium membership of Call of Duty Elite (which is completely optional) will set a new gold standard for what the multiplayer and community experience for a console game can be. Why are we not revealing all of the features that are part of the premium service today? Simple. Because the service was designed to be deeply integrated with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and will not be demonstrable until we are closer to the launch of the game. We know seeing is believing, and over the next few months we will be revealing and demonstrating more of the premium features and by the end of the summer, we will reveal the entire service in full.
The reason we announced the service today was so we could begin recruiting for a free beta using the multiplayer community of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which will allow us to test the service at scale. This is a critical step to us launching the service successfully this fall. So we appreciate your patience.
