Last week, Activision issued its earnings for the January-March quarter. Other than reporting $503 million in profits, the publisher also further revealed its plans for the Call of Duty franchise. Specifically, the company said that this year’s installment – now confirmed to be Modern Warfare 3 – will have “an unprecedented online universe that is accompanying it.” The publisher indicated that this “all-new connected digital universe” – also called a new “platform” – was in the works at its newly formed Beachhead studio. In a call with analysts following the report, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that “We look forward to sharing more specifics on this exciting new endeavor in the coming weeks.”

Now, it appears that one of those specifics – the platform’s title – may have been leaked. A person claiming to work in the tradeshow graphics industry posted several pieces of Activision-related Electronic Entertainment Expo art on the forums of gaming blog Electric Hydra. One is a logo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (which has since proven right). The second is something called Call of Duty: Elite, possibly the name of the Beachhead’s new online platform.

What we don’t know (assuming it’s not fake) is what exactly ‘Elite’ is.  Activision does have the unenviable reputation of being a money grabbing company, and as they’ve promised not to charge for any content that is currently seen as part of the Call of Duty game, Elite is probably a paid subscription based add-on to Modern Warfare 3 – or the entire Call of Duty franchise.  It could be something as basic as social platform where all your stats are combined from all the previous versions, so you can lay claim to be the best player ever, or it could be like those high roller rooms at casinos, but in this case, it’s a dedicated server where only paid subscribers get to play, therefore hopefully getting rid of whiney 10 year old boys who do nothing but bitch and team kill.

Once again, as with any rumour, we won’t know anything for sure until the game itself hits our consoles in early November.

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Last week, Activision issued its earnings for the January-March quarter. Other than reporting $503 million in profits, the publisher also further revealed its plans for the Call of Duty franchise. Specifically, the company said that this year’s installment – now confirmed to be Modern Warfare 3 – will have “an unprecedented online universe that is accompanying it.” The publisher indicated that this “all-new connected digital universe” – also called a new “platform” – was in the works at its newly formed Beachhead studio. In a call with analysts following the report, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that “We look forward to sharing more specifics on this exciting new endeavor in the coming weeks.”

Now, it appears that one of those specifics – the platform’s title – may have been leaked. A person claiming to work in the tradeshow graphics industry posted several pieces of Activision-related Electronic Entertainment Expo art on the forums of gaming blog Electric Hydra. One is a logo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (which has since proven right). The second is something called Call of Duty: Elite, possibly the name of the Beachhead’s new online platform.

What we don’t know (assuming it’s not fake) is what exactly ‘Elite’ is.  Activision does have the unenviable reputation of being a money grabbing company, and as they’ve promised not to charge for any content that is currently seen as part of the Call of Duty game, Elite is probably a paid subscription based add-on to Modern Warfare 3 – or the entire Call of Duty franchise.  It could be something as basic as social platform where all your stats are combined from all the previous versions, so you can lay claim to be the best player ever, or it could be like those high roller rooms at casinos, but in this case, it’s a dedicated server where only paid subscribers get to play, therefore hopefully getting rid of whiney 10 year old boys who do nothing but bitch and team kill.

Once again, as with any rumour, we won’t know anything for sure until the game itself hits our consoles in early November.