COD Elite succesvoller dan verwacht

In een interview met Joystiq heeft Call of Duty VP of Production, Danial Suarez, verteld wat de reden is achter het gestuntel met de nieuwe COD Elite-service. De service heeft, sinds de launch van de game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 afgelopen dinsdag niet naar behoren gewerkt.

Suarez zei in het interview dat Activision had verwacht dat de launch van de nieuwe titel binnen de reeks gigantisch zou zijn en dat de release "a tremendous amount of traffic" zou opleveren voor de Elite-service. Maar ondanks alle voorbereidingen was de opkomst van het aantal spelers zo gigantisch, dat de servers het alsnog begaven.

"The high demand from the console application and registration on the website from the PC really crippled the registration and login process which then translated into the backend servers being slammed. So we've been working around the clock to alleviate access into the system and we've had a large number of people now able to register. We've resolved that piece of it and now we're actually working on getting the service back up and running to a point where poeple can then enjoy it."

Ondanks dat de service een beta-fase heeft doorlopen werkt de service nu, zes dagen na de officiële launch, nog steeds niet 100% voor alle gebruikers.

"We knew MW3 was going to be big and we planned for a big demand, it's just the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with volume," gaf Suarez toe. "We did a beta, the beta was intended to give us the data on how everything would behave with people hitting different parts of the service and different parts of the site. But when you add the complexities of it being not only an online service but one that has a console component, a PC component, and a soon-to-be-released mobile component, all being released at the same time, it's never been done before at this scale."

"We know we've got this Founder's opportunity, the ability to do double XP, and a lot of that drove people wanting to log in and register and be part of it. So I can't say that's what caused this. From the planning standpoint, we planned for it to be big. It's Call of Duty, we have all our metrics. We know what our metrics are from Black Ops and MW2 and all the previous Call of Dutys, so we were planning for it to be big.

"But we just literally had so much influx right now from all the different areas, from the console and the web. It just hit us a lot harder than we thought."

Ondanks dat Suarez nog geen definitieve dag kon geven waarop de service volledig zou werken, liet hij wel weten dat ze er dag en nacht mee bezig zijn om het zo snel mogelijk werkend te krijgen.

"This is not the Elite experience we want people to have. This is not what everybody worked two years plus for. This is not what the Beachhead Studios guys poured their heart and souls into. And we're all committed."

"I don't think there's a bigger priority right now within Activision than to try and get this back up and running as quickly as possible."

Ter compensatie voor de geleden downtime geeft Activision een gratis dertig dagen Elite-abbonement aan premium leden.