Call of Duty Elite shutting down on Friday - What that means for you

Activision has announced that Call of Duty Elite, the online service launched in 2011 alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, will officially close this Friday, February 28.

The Call of Duty Elite service was designed to work with prior Call of Duty games, like Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops II, and has been winding down since late last year, Activision said. There are no plans to ever bring Call of Duty Elite back, the publisher added.

Instead, Activision encouraged users to download the official Call of Duty app for Call of Duty: Ghosts and future titles, which allows players to customize their multiplayer character and weapon loadouts on the go.

Here's what Call of Duty Elite's closure means, specifically, for you:

• When you try to open the Call of Duty Elite app on your console or mobile device, simply put, you won't be able to as of 10 a.m. PDT on Friday.
• Call of Duty Elite Founders, members who signed up when the program originally launched in 2011, will get to keep their special emblem and it will continue to be displayed on their playercard in the Call of Duty app for Call of Duty: Ghosts.
• Players who have logged into the Call of Duty Elite service since January 1, 2014 will receive two hours of double XP for Call of Duty: Ghosts. This will be available "soon."
• Any content stored in-game or uploaded to YouTube via Call of Duty Elite will remain available. In the case of Black Ops II, if you previously linked your YouTube account to your Call of Duty account, all your uploaded videos will be migrated to your personal YouTube account. If not, your videos will go to dedicated Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Black Ops II channels.
• Regarding Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops II Clans, after February 28, all Clans and Clan Management tools for those games will no longer be accessible through Call of Duty Elite. Activision encouraged users to download the Call of Duty app and try out Call of Duty Clan Wars instead.
• Once Call of Duty Elite goes away this Friday, you also won't be able to view the medals earned from Clan Ops and Challenges.
• Finally, all Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops II stats won't be available through Call of Duty Elite, but you can still view recent stats in-game.

Modern Warfare 3 co-developer Sledgehammer Games is currently working on 2014's Call of Duty game, which Activision has described as the "perhaps the best Call of Duty game ever created." This game has yet to be formally announced but is rumored to be the next installment in the Modern Warfare series.