CoD Elite 2.0 Planned For Year's End

Activision has confirmed that a new Call Of Duty title is in development and slated to release in 2012. Which, let's face it, is not news at all. However, what is interesting is that Acti have pledged to profoundly innovate this time around - which is absolutely imperative now that the Modern Warfare series has reached its conclusion. CEO Eric Hirshberg spilled the beans in their quarterly financials.

"This year, we expect to further expand our presence with the launch of an all-new epic first person shooter title under the Call of Duty brand."

"From what we've seen the game already looks fantastic and will bring meaningful innovation to the franchise. I could not be more excited."

Could this mean a new engine? Exciting new mechanics? Bugger all? Either way, what we do know is that Activision plan to significantly upgrade Call Of Duty Elite to version 2.0, and we have more details after the break.

Hirshberg revealed that Elite (their Call Of Duty premium subscription service) has enticed over 1.5 million paid users, and the first regular DLC map pack will be out in March for non-members. This is just the tip of the iceberg (Hirshberg?), however, since Activision plan to revamp the service in time for launch.

We plan to keep our foot on the gas with Call of Duty Elite.

Although we are pleased with where we are today, the objective of Elite is to make the total Call of Duty experience more fun and more engaging and we plan to launch additional features in the next 60 days.

We're already hard at work on Elite 2.0 with several innovative features being developed to work hand in hand with our next Call of Duty release.

We'll keep you posted. Just in case you're interested in the financial report (I decided not to cover them in detail this year), Activision are looking very healthy indeed. We frequently take issue with their business practices, but there's no denying that they're working.