Popular game developer Activision has decided to offer Call of Duty Elite to gamers, free of charge. Call of Duty Elite is a service which works along with games from Call of Duty franchise to provide social updates, stat tracking, monthly map updates and more.

Paid premium plans will be dropped and the service will be going free for Black Ops II gamers upon the launch of the new game title on November 13. Previously the service was availed to customers at a cost of $50/year (approximately 2600INR/year). 

Elite subscribers who purchased the service earlier had access to several challenges and competitions, extra space for video storage and guaranteed early access to DLC map packs. Customers purchasing Black Ops II will have access to all these features free of cost. However there seems to be one minor drawback. Early access to DLC seems to be no longer available in Elite.

But Activision has made arrangements for Xbox 360 users to purchase a season pass for $50 (approximately Rs. 2600) or 4000 Microsoft points which will give them access to 4 maps throughout 2013.The map packs otherwise will cost $15 (approx Rs 750) each. Season pass holders will be able to save $10 (approximately Rs. 520) in this manner.

Call of Duty Elite currently has 12 million subscribers and 2.3 million out of this are premium subscribers. The premium subscribers will be automatically transferred to the free service when their subscriptions for Modern Warfare 3 run out. The new free Elite service will be officially launched along with Black Ops II next month.

Activision has not yet announced a $50 season pass for PC, PS3 or Wii U yet. Activision has also mentioned that season passes and DLC maps might not be available on all gaming platforms. Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be available for PC, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360.