How much will Call of Duty: Elite cost?

Call of Duty: Elite's subscription services will set gamers back around $5 (£3) a month, so say a selection of industry analysts canvassed by Eurogamer.

As announced earlier this week, Elite is a new multiplayer platform for Activision's FPS franchise offering a range of social and stat-tracking features, some of which you'll have to pay a subscription fee for.

As of yet, Activision hasn't confirmed a fee structure for the service but senior Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz told Eurogamer that he expects a monthly charge of between $5 and $8 depending on the feature set offered.

Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter put his guess at between $50 and $60 a year (or $4.16 and $5 a month).

EEDAR VP Jesse Divnich predicted the monthly fee will be around $4.99, while senior M2 research analyst Billy Pidgeon estimated it at between $5 and $10.

As for how many sign-ups Activision can expect, a figure of between one and two million paying customers by the end of the year seemed to be the consensus.

"In terms of the services potential, our current surveys and market research indicate that Call of Duty: Elite could achieve 10 to 20% penetration among Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 purchasers," said Divnich.

"This likely translates into about two to four million subscribers after 12 months and likely 1.5 million subscribers by the end of 2011."

Pachter put the projected total in a similar ball park. "My guess is that one million will subscribe this year, and they hope to increase by one to two million each year thereafter," he said.

All agreed that the Elite platform is a logical move from Activision, and that it was wise not to demand subscription fees for all of the shooter's multiplayer features.

"It would have alienated much of the existing playerbase and killed the franchise," explained Creutz.

"You can't start charging extra for features you had been giving for free. This way people who want the added features can pay while the more casual fan gets to keep enjoying the game as they have been."

Elite is expected to launch in tandem with Modern Warfare 3 in November, with a public beta preceding it in the summer.

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