In their own words

CoD Elite Fail

I continue to have problems with the Elite service, now almost two weeks after the games release. It saddens me that what couldn't have been (and probably eventually will be) a big step forward for the franchise, is currently a laughing stock. As you crawl around the service, clearly still reeling from the onslaught of customers expecting it to work, you can see that developer had a lot of ambitious plans.

Clans and groups exist for two different levels of community competition. Clans form a more traditional "by invitation" style teaming, whereas groups are more of a self-forming, hash tag style of grouping. You can join competitions for performance, or for picture taking - and presumably eventually as a clan (although that is not working yet). Mobile apps are in the works, and are supposedly due out at the end of November. Youtube channel linking... The guys had some good ideas.

Working for a rather large company, I just don't understand how they underestimated demand on such a scale. The jaded part of me thinks they new full well this would happen and just didn't want to pay for the release day spike in demand. The forgiving part of me thinks they just made a really dumb decision. Nonetheless, it continues to amaze.

Some day, someone is going to get this "fantasy football" meets "fps" meets "social networking" thing done right. When you look at the success of "fantasy" sports, it is clear that there are many out there that love stat tracking so much they make games out of it. Imagine if Elite effortlessly let you chat with your friends and the community about a game you love. Imagine reviewing your stats and your friends stats on Monday - and scores for statistical games based on the core gameplay. It will come.

Some day an FPS developer may get such a meta-game so "right", that folks may not want to play anything else. Unfortunately, there may be quite a wait by the look of things.

Electric B