14 DAY TRIAL // After a week during which a number of users of the Elite service for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 have complained about Hitler and Aryan videos that were appearing as staff picks, publisher Activision has finally solved the issue and has apologized for any offence it might have caused.
A statement from publisher Activision states that the videos were “in no way an Elite staff pick, but rather a linking issue that has since been remedied by the Elite Live Operations and Beachhead team.”
It adds, “Material of this nature does not belong on Elite and we are working to prevent these types of issues from happening in the future. The content originated on a third-party video hosting site, a fix has since been pushed and we expect to see a solution this morning. Elite reserves the right to ban users who violate the Call of Duty Elite terms of service and code of conduct.”
A number of Elite players were shown World War II footage of Adolf Hitler and videos from an Aryan rock group called Final War as if they were sanctioned content that the staff running Elite has chosen as being significant for the player base.
Activision has not said why it needed one full week to solve the problem or whether the linking problem that was blamed could reappear in the near future.
Call of Duty: Elite is a companion service for the very popular first-person shooter franchise from Activision.
Its free version allows gamers to group with others and get more statistics about their multiplayer experience while those who are willing to pay a subscription get more clan options and early access to the downloadable content that Infinity Ward delivers for the game.
A new version of Elite will be launched alongside the next Call of Duty titles to arrive in the fall of this year.