Call of Duty Elite beta testing starts July 14

As part of its E3 2011 announcements, publisher Activision has announced that it expects to start closed beta testing for Call of Duty Elite, the upcoming social networking and game stats service for players of the popular first person shooter series. The E3 2011 press release said that beta sign ups for Call of Duty Elite already surpassed 1 million registered users five days after the service was first announced.

The service will be beta tested using the current game in the series, Call of Duty Black Ops, but will officially launch to the public with all of its features when the next game in the series, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, is released on November 8. The publisher recently sent out an FAQ with more info on what will be in the service for both free users and those who will choose to pay for access to "premium" features.

The press release also quotes Bob McKenzie, a senior vice-president of game retailer GameStop, as saying, "Last year, Call of Duty: Black Ops became the most pre-ordered title in our history. Already, this year, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is significantly ahead of that pace. Our customers' response to the reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has been amazing." Call of Duty Black Ops is now the single best selling game in US history with over 20 million copies sold.

Activison will also show off a number of other games at E3 2011 including Prototype 2, the sequel to the open world action game from developer Radical Entertainment that's due out in 2012.

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