Call of Duty ELITE delayed on PC, will be free, toned down

PC players looking forward to Modern Warfare 3 should know its social and stats hub Elite won't be available on their platform for some time; Activision is citing the open nature of the PC as a potential source for security issues.

"Without a central, trusted resource for stats, a lot of our competition features become unfair," says Beachhead Studio head Chacko Sonny. "We can’t give away prizes when people can easily cheat their stats. Leaderboards are less fun when a lot of the users are there unfairly."

As such, "a lot more work" has to be done, so don't wait up.

"We’re working our butts off to make it happen," he explains, "But we won’t release it until we know that PC gamers can enjoy Elite as it’s meant to be."

As well, there will be significant differences between the console and PC versions of Elite. On the latter platform, it will have a reduced feature set, which means no web TV series and no tournaments, though DLC will be available separately as with previous games. Making up for this: Elite will be free on PC.

If you're feeling jilted, remember a long list of PC features will be in place.