Activision Quietly Force Adverts into Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Warzone Loadouts

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real

Article:
With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process. Activision already has a bad reputation for the aggressive monetization of the premium Black Ops 6 and its free-to-play battle royale Warzone, but this latest move may have tipped some players over the edge. Following the launch of Season 4, adverts for weapon bundles can be seen in the build and weapon menus. These are unavoidable for players as they tinker with their loadouts.
 
It won't tip anyone over the edge. Gamers - particularly "mid-core" ones - have made it clear that they have no standards and are essentially a bunch of invalids that will consume whatever slop is presented to them. Enjoy your trash.
 
Then click bait is always on point with these articles.

Why is this considered "quietly forcing" something on the player.

I guess the traditional position is "I paid money for this why am I subjected to ads"…but really if someone is paying for cod at this point…why?!?

Gamepass players make up a large portion of that player base right?

Seems like the natural progression for MS here…maximize the engagement they have.
 
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If having weapons/skins/operators that are completely outside of the theme of the base game didn't change gamer habits, then this site won't. They will continue to monetize and saturate this until demand fades and the IP is deemed worthless.
 
I remember 2019's MW/Warzone had some sort of a store button show up next to the Weapon slots in the load out editing menus.

Edit: Here it is! Granted the Black Ops 6 stuff does get in the way more.
 
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I remember 2019's MW/Warzone had some sort of a store button show up next to the Weapon slots in the load out editing menus.

Edit: Here it is! Granted the Black Ops 6 stuff does get in the way more.
Yes, as I've mentioned in the OT:
Update is live, mode filters didn't reset this time.
First noticeable thing that's pretty awful though is they put available bundles right on top of every weapon when picking a loadout, even though there's a separate "shop" tab already...

edit:
nice thing: they added a random operator pick, and you can manually add your favourite operators, and can even have those operators randomly change between favourite skins.
 
Crapping up the UX flow, sure. But at least it's not McDonalds ads or something 🤷‍♂️

(btw, I don't play COD anymore, so I don't really have a horse in this race)
 
Looking at the Tweets in the article does this fall under one of those circumstances where "miss clicks" can result in inadvertent purchases, which is illegal?
 
not the end of the world and to be honest. Probably one of the lesser evils they could do.

Still annoying though. In the middle of some cod rest years just now (not a black ops fan, pissed at how mw3 turned out, tired of the game being like Fortnite, pc hackers till recently I hear)

So happy to vote with my wallet and not buy anything cod related for a bit. For me it comes down to 'do they believe they do enough for me ?' Or does the game make me think, I'm not the target market

As the answer is apparently not. I'm happy to skip and I'll leave activision, to do what ever they want. I'll take a look at this years cod. But if I'm honest. It's probably already a skip from me and I'll hope for some sort of gears or halo combo on ps5 to catch my gaming interest 😎

(Maybe one day. They will release a version of cod. Where you can filter back all the paid operators, weapons and effects.

I can but hope 🤞. But they did do an actual console v pc filter. So you never know. Maybe I'm old, but I liked it when the biggest effects in cod were someone screaming 'the numbers mason'. or prices impressive combat mutton chops 😁😂


But they will probably charge you more to vanilla the game 😂🙄)
 
Looking at the Tweets in the article does this fall under one of those circumstances where "miss clicks" can result in inadvertent purchases, which is illegal?
No, if you select a weapon, it still defaults to the first blueprint you have, not the store banner, you have to press up to select it; even if you do somehow activate it, you just see the bundle contents first, and then you have to confirm twice to purchase.
 
You exceptional intellectual geniuses asked for this, they and other companies obliged. End of story.

I love laughing at you folks that buy microtransactions and subs and then ask, "how did this happen?". Great start to vacation and the day. Big claps to you folks who helped make this a reality.

You've ruined your own hobby and lightened your bank accounts along the way. My word, how amazing.
 
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And some people thought that being free of Bobby Kotick would make Activision games be less shitty and predatory. Guess it's just engrained in their whole business, or Microsoft is just as shitty.
 
Why not? Cod players will swallow anything really
Season 3 Nbc GIF by The Office
 
I don't care about CoD and it's player base.
But we can be sure that this will spread to other games. Games that we care about.
So this development is very concerning for us gamers.
 
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Accountants have invaded game design. And they only listen to shareholders.

State of the videogame industry 2025.
This mostly applies to the AAA side of things. AA and indie teams do not have the same egregious amount of pencil pushing layers meddling with their work/vision or persuasion onto them.

They, AA and respectful indies, are here to leave their creative mark while striving to make some money along the way. AAA have for the most forgot/cut away the first part and have become preoccupied with the latter.
 
just want to get my 1000 dreadnought kills then i can finally put this one to bed. got the diamond mastery on killstreaks months ago and said i would stop then but keep going back to play here and there
 
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I don't think it's a big deal to be honest, a
I think they have had that on the operator selection screen forever.

The bigger deal is the shitty 3000 pt bundles they have been releasing which are a big middle finger to their players. Almost no content and no value for the money. Activision really needs to take a step back from this and reconsider their approach before they do lose more players. This is the kind of aggressive monetization that actually made me quit Siege after 8 years.
 
I don't care about CoD and it's player base.
But we can be sure that this will spread to other games. Games that we care about.
So this development is very concerning for us gamers.
Games? My PC advertises gamepass with notification pop-ups. This ship has long sailed.
 
The whole season 4 patch is a shit show. Somehow they keep regressing at every single patch. Honestly I don't even care about the gunsmith ads. I expect it from cod as sad as that is but I just want the game to perform decently. There's still a bunch of bugs from months ago present.
 
I still enjoy COD a bit and I haven't bought anything in game in years. Yes they are idiots who turned a loved series into Fortnite but I still get 75 hours a year out of it
 
Not surprising but when millions buy the game and then millions spend millions on in-game bullshit and the entire operation is about nothing more than greedy executives and greedy investors using video games to fatten their bank accounts while "gamers" spend their money on this shit, this is what happens. Stop paying for it and it will stop. That is never going to happen though.
 
I don't care about CoD and it's player base.
But we can be sure that this will spread to other games. Games that we care about.
So this development is very concerning for us gamers.
Im not seeing how this is that big a deal, its for in game stuff, they just added it to another screen? Hogwarts Legacy pushing legit ads for the quidditch game and stuff like that is already worse in my mind.
 
If having weapons/skins/operators that are completely outside of the theme of the base game didn't change gamer habits, then this site won't. They will continue to monetize and saturate this until demand fades and the IP is deemed worthless.
The year is 2049. Fortnite Season 40 is about to drop and COD is on their 5th iteration/reboot of Modern Warfare 2. Madden and FIFA still top the monthly charts and GTA 7 is set to release on the fall.

🫡
 
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