Several weeks after Xbox 360 owners first got their hands on new Modern Warfare 3 maps, the content is finally heading to PS3.
There’s a caveat, though – for PS3 owners, the latest Call of Duty: MW3 content is only available to those who are enrolled in the premium Call of Duty Elite service.
For a while, Activision has been wondering how it could better monetize its insanely popular Call of Duty franchise. Gamers spend $60 on the game and then pour in dozens or even hundreds of hours, making it a pretty good deal for gamers.
But Activision wanted to capitalize on the level of passion so many Call of Duty fanatics have, so it created Call of Duty Elite. For a monthly fee, members get access to exclusive content and online promotions.
And, they are also first in line to get new downloadable content (DLC) packs.
This caused some confusion early on, because the benefits of Elite don’t specify differences between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Separate from the Elite service, Microsoft has a contract with Activision in which Microsoft pays the publisher a truckload of money in exchange for being the first to get all new Call of Duty DLC.
So before any PS3 user – even a Call of Duty Elite member – is able to access new downloadable content, it must first have been made available to all Xbox 360 users, even those without Call of Duty Elite.
So where do we stand now? Currently, all Xbox 360 users can access the new batch of DLC, while only PS3 users who are Call of Duty Elite members are able to access it on the Sony platform.
On top of all this, the DLC still costs more money. Only Call of Duty could get away with this.
