During a press event at the Call of Duty XP venue last night, Activision revealed the pricing structure for Call of Duty Elite, a supplemental service tied to the popular shooter franchise.

Though a slew of content is available for free for all users that sign up for Elite, a premium service will be offered for an annual price of $49.99. Additionally, Activision revealed that one year of Elite service will come bundled with the Hardened Edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 when it launches on November 8 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Features like Facebook integration, stat and map tracking, group interaction, and clan support are included with Elite's free service on the Elite website, as well as on upcoming mobile applications for iOS and Android-based platforms. Modern Warfare 3 also includes Elite features, allowing players to look at their stats and heat maps in more detailed ways than are available in current iterations of the franchise.

For $49.99 per year, users will receive the following perks:

• All DLC will be made available to Elite members during the time of active subscription, meaning, when new content is offered, Elite subscribers will get it all without having to pay additional fees.

• DLC will also be staggered for more frequent releases, specifically, it will be broken into chunks of 20 pieces arriving monthly in pieces and will include everything from maps to modes and Spec Ops missions. Non-premium Elite members must wait for full DLC releases which will happen less frequently, but still offer the same content at an additional price.

• Though clan support is offered free, Elite clans will have a progression system akin to player progression. This means that players in clans level up their clan over time and can join tournaments.

• Free Elite members get a limited number of slots for published video and screenshots on their profile, Elite members get 8X more video capacity.

• Elite members can access strategy and analysis content from Call of Duty pros

A more detailed list of the perks can be found in our previous coverage on the service.

With at least four DLC drops for each of the past recent Call of Duty drops, the access to DLC seems to make the $50 price worth it alone. Purchasing each Modern Warfare 3 map pack, which will be priced at $15 per pack with four planned DLC drops (as detailed during yesterday's event) would cost users an additional $60. That's an immediate $10 savings without considering the additional bonuses.

On top of that, one year of Elite service comes with the Hardened Edition. If that package is priced at $80, as it historically has, then users will receive one year of DLC for the price of just over one standard DLC release.

The news also further sweetens the deal at the first annual CoD event. All Call of Duty XP attendees will receive a voucher to obtain a free 'Hardened' edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Proceeds from the event will be used as part of Activision's charitable efforts to help veteran soldiers find work after heroically serving their country.

Some questions linger, however. For example, since DLC for Elite users is more frequent and staggered, how will Microsoft's timed-exclusivity affect the premium service for users on the PC and PS3?

Shacknews has an interview with Activision later today and will try to clarify some of the unanswered questions.