It’s looking like Call Of Duty ELITE may never arrive on PC at all, according to Eurogamer. After it was announced earlier this month that the multiplayer-embellishing feature would be absent from the PC release, along with lots of promises that this was to ensure it was tip-top quality and completely safe, it’s now looking possible we’ll never get to use it.

Making it clear they were committed to the PC, developers Beachhead Studios explained that the PC was “an insecure platform” and required a lot more work to get the system in such a state that people couldn’t cheat it. As Alec mentioned, it seems a touch odd that this was only news to them at the eleventh hour, but hey-do-ho. But, they said, the were “working our butts off to make it happen”.

A tweet from the Call Of Duty Elite official feed, responding to user “TheJuggz” (whose Twitter profile weirdly seems to have disappeared – start your evil Activision conspiracies here), reads:

“We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.”

ELITE hasn’t had the best of times since launch. Servers collapsed under what had to be predictable user demand on launch, forcing them to limit numbers accessing the service from consoles. There have been problems with those who purchased “Founder” accounts not receiving their in-game bonuses. The mobile apps still haven’t been released, due to what they call “instability” with the site and server load, and now the PC version is being spoken of in terms that suggest they’re considering giving up on it.

It all suggests to me a service that simply wasn’t ready by the release of the main game. While clearly dealing with those sorts of numbers of players logging in simultaneously for the biggest game launch in history was always going to be hugely challenging, and was always going to have some glitches, that they can’t even release the mobile apps at this point seems peculiar. And the loss of the PC version – well, that would be something that would have some serious consequences for those who had bought the game on the understanding that it would be available. It’s clear that Beachhead really are working their arses off right now. It’s just a shame that their promising-mouths seem to bigger an awful lot bigger than their delivering-stomachs.

(I think the biggest victim of all this might be the poor person/people who are manning the Beachhead Twitter feed, sending out hundreds and hundreds of support tweets a day.)