Breaking news revealing the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 subscription plan was published on the Wall Street Journal’s technology page this afternoon. What was originally considered rumour has now been confirmed, but what is this going to mean for Call of Duty gamers?

Robert “fourzerotwo” Bowling received a lot of feedback via his twitter page after he tweeted the following in an attempt to calm the masses:

Indeed the article via the WSJ explains that while it won’t be required to “pay 2 play” the Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer content, some aspects of the game will only be accessible by those who sign up for the subscription.

Kotaku Australia’s Luke Plunkett reported the following:

“Call of Duty Elite will be part of Modern Warfare 3 (and future titles) when its released in November, and will for a price allow multiplayer gamers access to stuff not available to regular consumers who only pay once for the game disc.”

He goes on to report that extras such as map packs and online tools for analysing in-game behaviour (data) will be offered to subscribers. Most DLC via Xbox Live is accessible for a fee already, so this won’t be too difficult to swallow, but it certainly paves the way for negating the possibility of any free DLC in future.

The subscription plan is called “Call of Duty Elite” so anyone that doesn’t sub is… what? Non-elite? Not that I care all that much – I stopped playing the franchise some time ago but I can imagine this won’t be going down too well with fans of the game.

What do you think of the Call of Duty Elite plan? Serious BS or do you think it has validity in the grand-scheme of things?