Activision decides it's not making enough money off Call of Duty fans

In what I can only describe as a "stupid move", Activision has released details of the new Call of Duty: Elite system. Unhappy with only being able to squeeze ~$90 ($60 retail game disk, plus ~$30 in DLC maps) from it's audience per year, they've decided to roll out a premium social networking type service for Call of Duty.

Activision Blizzard Inc. plans to launch an online service called Call of Duty Elite this fall that will work with the next major edition of the game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," and future installments of the hyper-realistic combat-simulation game. In a move industry executives describe as a first, Activision plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for the service, which will provide extra content that isn't offered on game discs sold in stores, including downloadable map packs that give players new "Call of Duty" levels to play.

Portions of the service will be free, including features inspired by Facebook Inc. that will let "Call of Duty" players meet for online gun battles with others who share various affiliations and interests.

Activision has not announced any sort of pricing for this service, but i'd expect at least $8-10 a month.

Various people within Activision have taken to twitter to defend this move, as well as to confirm there will be a free tier of service (how limited it will end up is anyone's guess).

At this rate I'm expecting COD to go the way of Guitar Hero shortly.