Remember back in 2011 when Activision's ambitious online service dedicated to the Call of Duty franchise and its players was going to be the best thing ever? It's shutting down forever on February 28. That's skull logo has never been more appropriate.

Call of Duty Elite will be free when Black Ops II launches this November, but Wii U players won't be able to get their hands on it just yet.

The Call of Duty Elite service will be completely free of charge for all players with the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II this November, Activision announced today.

It seemed like such a good idea! Get two guys who were very funny on a TV show together, get their production company to make a Call of Duty series, star in it themselves. Easy success, easy money.

This is a trailer for Jason Bateman and Will Arnett's Cocked Hammers, a series of comedy shorts that'll be running as part of Call of Duty Elite.

The much ballyhooed Call of Duty: Elite online service will not be available in Japan. Square Enix, Call of Duty's publisher in Japan, revealed that a Japanese version isn't happening due to localization issues.

You'd expect to see videos showcasing epic killstreaks and particularly inventive death-dealing chosen to be highlighted as staff picks on Call of Duty Elite's Theater pages. You might not expect to find Adolf Hitler there, though. And yet, there he is.

Former Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle wriggles his way into Modern Warfare 3's upcoming Overwatch map, giving us a guided tour of the hoary heights of New York City skyscrapers.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg jokingly announced a new slogan for Call of Duty: Elite today:

The globe-trotting nature of the Call of Duty series means that multiplayer maps have a plethora of locales to choose from. And the latest one is in… New York?!

Some hardcore fanatics might say that Call of Duty's a major part of their life. Thinking about killstreaks, prestiges and perks in Activision's multi-developer FPS series takes up a large part of their days and their nights get spent filling online opponents full of bullet holes.

Premium Call of Duty Elite Subscribers got a couple stocking stuffers on Christmas Eve for use in Modern Warfare 3. They'll get an extra two hours of double XP play, and a Prestige Token that can be redeemed for more XP time or other perks in the game's Prestige Shop.

So, getting Call of Duty Elite functional has been a struggle for Activision. The publisher's promising that the social platform built for their best-selling FPS franchise will finally be mostly functional this week. The mega-publisher's turned out a trailer to celebrate this occasion. In the clip, you'll see an…

Call of Duty's online Elite service is just about fully functionally, with the first episode of Friday Night Fights set to hit this week and the mobile version releasing as early as next week, Activision says.

Never mind that the rollout for Call of Duty Elite, Call of Duty's stat tracking and social service, hasn't been smooth, Activision is sending out a press release this morning to proudly announce that it's sold one million premium accounts. Congrats!

Call of Duty: Elite is suffering a rocky rollout. Things haven't gone as expected, but in good time, Activision will hopefully get things ironed out. Until then, there's this.

Call of Duty Elite's launch was rocky, Activision tells us, missteps were made, but we've never had any sense of just how many paying customers it might have attracted, until now.