As reported on Gamasutra, Call of Duty: Elite has already had two million sign-ups. The massive figure was announced on the blog of Activision's Dan Amrich.

Exact details as to how the new service will work are yet to be announced. According to Amrich, the final service will evolve depending on feedback taken from the beta anyway. He also mentions that fans of the series shouldn't be discouraged by the popularity of the service, saying "Two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better. Once you’ve signed up, just watch your email inbox for an invite."

We do know that Elite will let you obsess over your stats to an unhealthy degree, there will be free and paid versions of the service, and that some form of TV show will be incorporated, featuring "top Hollywood Talent."

As far as we can tell, it's going to be a bit like a Facebook profile, but where every picture, status update, and awkward message will be COD-focussed. Your photos will feature camo, your status updates will be concerned with weapon attachment unlocks, and your messages will be littered with words like n00b t00b and base-rape. It'll support Call of Duty: Black Ops and the upcoming Modern Warfare 3.

Read more about Call of Duty Elite in Activision's latest FAQ, and sign up for the beta here. Amrich has created a handy information hub too - what a nice chap.

Last week Activision canned their long running Guitar Hero series on consoles. Releasing a new version of the game every year had worn customers out, and it was decided that nobody would want yet another entry in the series. With Activision committed to releasing a new Call of Duty game every year, could the same thing happen to the shooter series?

That was the question Industry Gamers asked a series of industry analysts, who concluded that Call of Duty is unlikely to be milked to death in the same way that Guitar Hero was, though the risk is there. DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole says "there is a very real danger of milking a franchise and causing quality to decline, which can result in turning consumers off. With COD I think the danger is trying to maintain the quality of the franchise and making sure they don't release product just to release product."

Another analyst cited Call of Duty's multiplayer community as the source of its staying power, saying that Call of Duty "has a vibrant online community that keeps growing. When a new version comes out, the 'network effect' kicks in, and many people buy it because their friends have done so. The risk to the franchise is competition, not people tiring of the gameplay... CoD won't fade unless Activision opens the door to competition by making a bad game."

There's no shortage of competition. DICE are standing in the sidelines ready to take the crown. This year will likely see Battlefield 3 go head to head with the next Call of Duty game. What do you think, could yearly releases burn out the Call of Duty series?

A few months back, when asked what his one wish would be for his company, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said “I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow,” which understandably had gamers worried that Call of Duty's multiplayer modes might come with an added monthly fee in future. Activision have spoken out today to firmly put an end to those rumours.
Speaking to IndustryGamers, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said “are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no,” adding that “the experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience and we’ll never charge for that. It’s not going to be something we’ll attempt to monetize; it’s part of the package.”

He continues, saying “there are certainly a lot of behavioral shifts towards long-standing online relationships… But at the end of the day, all I’m trying to get across is I can unequivocally say we will never, ever charge for the multiplayer.”

It would be hard for Activision to deny it more strongly than that. For more Call of Duty multiplayer goodness, check out our pick of the funniest Call of Duty: Black Ops kills, and a guide to the best killing spots in Call of Duty: Black Op's many varied maps.

A series of exciting and spoilerific Call of Duty: Black Ops videos have hit the web. Two videos show short sections of the single player campaign and a third shows the zombie mode in action. On top of all that, the player characters for the zombie mode have also been revealed, and they're amazing. All the videos can be found below. Be warned, though, here be spoilers.

First up, the campaign footage. It's impossible to figure out any story from these two videos, but they do reveal how two of the missions are going to play out. The second one in particular you may want to leave as a surprise.



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Next up, footage of the zombie mode, making a return after proving popular in Treyarch's last Call of Duty game, World at War. It asks players to hold up against hordes of endless zombies, earning cash for each kill in order to upgrade your weapons and slaughter even more monsters.



Here's the best bit. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, there's also going to be a cold war themed alternative to the traditional zombie mode. This will be set in the Pentagon, and have you playing as one of the four new characters. Introducing: President John F Kennedy, President Nixon, Secretary of Defence John Strange MacNamara and, er, Fidel Castro.

What Call of Duty: Black Ops loses in historical accuracy, it gains in managing to assemble the most insane and brilliant posse of video game characters you could hope to play as. The idea of playing Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon and blasting the heads of zombies while saying "impeach this!" makes me wish that the Call of Duty: Black Ops release next Tuesday 9th November would arrive sooner.

The launch trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops is here and 'death from above' seems to be the theme. Stealth planes cruise overhead, attack helicopters annihilate jungles, and men jump away from the explosions in slow motion to the sounds of 'Gimme shelter' by the Rolling Stones. It looks like the best action movie ever, and it's embedded below.

A shelter isn't going to be good enough for the firepower on show; a nuclear bunker would do a better job. The game is due out next Tuesday, the 9th, and is available to pre-purchase right now on Steam.

Never tell your terrible secrets to Treyarch - they're leakier than a chainmail umbrella. An achievements list for Black Ops has dribbled out all over the floor of the internet, and Treyarch community manager Josh Olin more or less confirmed that they were legit.

In his tweet, Josh said that there were minor spoilers and to stay away - hardly something you could say about a fake, right? Here's the list of achievements:

Sacrifice
Ensure your squad escapes safely from Cuba
Death to Dictators
Use a single round to bring down Castro
Vehicular Slaughter
Destroy all enemies on vehicles during the prison break
Give me liberty, or give me death
Escape Vorkuta
Slingshot Kid
Destroy all slingshot targets in 3 attempts
VIP
Receive orders from Lancer
A safer place
Sabatoge the Soviet space program
Tough Economy
Use no more than 6 TOW guided missiles to destroy the tanks in the defense of Khe Sanh
Looks don't count
Break the seige in the battle of Khe Sanh
SOG Rules
Retrieve the dossier and the defector from Hue City
Raining Pain
Rack up a bodycount of 20 NVA using air support in Hue City
The Dragon Within
Kill 10 NVA with Dragon's Breath rounds
Heavy Hand
Use the Grim Reaper to destroy the MG emplacement
Up close and personal
Silently take out 3 VC
Double Trouble
Use only dual wield weapons to escape Kowloon
Broken English
Escape Kowloon
Lord Nelson
Destroy all targets and structures while making your way up the river
Never get off the boat
Find the Soviet connection in Laos
Pathfinder
Guide the squad through the Soviet outpost without them getting killed
Mr. Black OP
Enter the Soviet relay station undetected
With extreme prejudice
Get to the POW compound in the Hind using only rockets
Russian bar-b-q
Incinerate 10 enemies with the flamethrower attachment in the POW compound
Light Foot
Escape the ship with 2:15 left on the timer in Veteran.
Some wounds never heal
Escape the past
I hate monkeys
Kill 7 monkeys in under 10 seconds in the Rebirth labs
No Leaks
Make it through the NOVA 6 gas without dying on Rebirth Island
Clarity
Crack the code
Double Whammy
Destroy both helicopters with one TOW guided missile from the deck of the ship
BLACK OP MASTER
Complete the campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty
Stand Down
Complete the campaign on any difficulty
Frag Master
Kill 5 enemies with a single frag grenade
Sally Likes Blood
Demonstrate killer economic sensibilities by taking down 3 enemies with a single bullet
Unconventional Warfare
Use the explosive bolts to kill 30 enemies
Down and Dirty
Complete "SOG" and "The Defector" on Veteran difficulty
It's your funeral
Complete "Numbers," "Project Nova" and "Victor Charlie" on Veteran difficulty
Cold Warrior
Complete "Operation 40", "Vorkuta", and "Executive Order" on Veteran difficulty
Not Today
Complete "Crash Site," "WMD" and "Payback" on Veteran difficulty
Burn Notice
Complete "Rebirth" and "Redemption" on Veteran difficulty
Closer Analysis
Find all the hidden intel
Matinee
Watch a film or clip with a friend
Gamblin' Fool
Finish 5 Wager Matches "in the money"
You can do it
Reach rank 10 in Basic Training
The Collector
In Zombie mode, buy every weapon off the walls in a single game
Hands Off the Merchandise
Kill the Pentagon thief before it can steal your load-out
Sacrificial Lamb
Kill 6 zombies after getting shot by a Pack-a-Punched Crossbow bolt
"Insert Coin"
Access the terminal and battle the forces of the Cosmic Silverback in Dead Ops Arcade
Easy Rhino
In Dead Ops Arcade, use a Speed Boost to blast through 20 or more enemies at one time

So you'll be shooting Castro, sabotaging the Soviet space program, doing escort missions in Russia, doing something in Hong Kong, firing explosive crossbow bolts, battling "the forces of the Cosmic Silverback," and all sorts of ridiculous nonsense. Pffft. When I were a lad, we had panzerfausts, M1 Garands, and people shouting "MEIN LIEBEN!", and we were bloody grateful.