“The mammoth launch of Modern Warfare 3 and the breakout success of Call of Duty Elite were just the beginning. Call of Duty Elite provides an ‛always-on’ connection to our fanbase, and the MW3 Content Season is the ultimate way to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Call of Duty community and provide tremendous value to Call of Duty Elite premium members,” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg. “With the Call of Duty: MW3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite we are delivering on our promise of more new content, more often, and with more variety than ever. With three studios collaborating on the first season, the breadth and depth of material on tap is truly extraordinary. It’s rare you can successfully execute both quantity and quality, but thanks to the expertise of our developers, the reach of Call of Duty Elite and the passion of our fans, we intend to deliver.”
The season of DLC will start TODAY, January 24th for Xbox Live users with premium Elite subscriptions. This month they’ll be able to download two new maps for use in competitive multiplayer and survival mode play. “Liberation,” set in war-torn Central Park, is a vast landscape perfect for LMG and sniper rifle enthusiasts. “Piazza” is a close-range map that takes place in a sleepy Italian village.
A third piece of DLC (each of the above maps is counted separately, it seems) will be released in mid-February. The fourth and fifth will go live in March. Premium Elite members can expect at least one “content drop” a month through September. They can download these updates for no additional charge. The DLC offerings will include new Spec Ops missions and game modes.
If you’re not an Xbox 360 owner, you’ll have to wait longer for this content. For previous COD games, DLC hit the PS3 and PC on a month delay. Expect a similar timeframe here.
Players without an Elite premium subscription will receive content on a delay as well. While subscribers will get this new content in steady drips, everyone else will have to wait until Activision releases “Modern Warfare 3 Content Collections.” The first Content Collection, presumably including all five pieces of DLC mentioned above, will go on sale in March.