Call of Duty displays microtransaction ads when you change weapons. Fans can't hide their outrage
Activision is getting pushy about microtransactions in the Call of Duty series. Players are complaining about the pack purchase ads displayed during weapon selection.
Last week, the latest full-fledged installment of the Call of Duty series - Black Ops 6 - received a big update. It mainly brought in new content for the 4th season of the game. However, players have a huge reason to complain. No, it's not about bugs or poorly designed new maps. The frustration of CoD fans is sparked by a feature added by Activision Blizzard, which encourages spending extra money in the game.
Call of Duty fans have noticed that there is now an ad at the top of the weapon selection menu, promoting a paid skin pack. Until now, such messages about available sets were visible, among others, in the game store itself, outside the actual gameplay. However, now the ads have been placed in a section directly related to the matches, which has greatly frustrated the players.
The community seems to be outraged that Activision is increasingly focusing on microtransactions in a game that is not free-to-play. For the basic version of Black Ops 6, you have to pay 70 bucks. That's why fans were so upset about the pushy encouragement for players to spend more money on optional skin packs.
This game is still 80€. I get that they [Activision] make most of their money from the store, but I feel like the bare minimum for a product would be to not have ads clogging the menus right? - wrote Reddit FalierTheCat.
Anyone who wanted this bundle would've checked the store and bought it. Putting it here [in the weapon menu] isn't gonna make more people buy it, its just annoying - added SentientGopro115935.
While some may see it as a minor change made by the developers, this new feature raises concerns about potential future actions aimed at encouraging players to spend money in the paid game. Some Call of Duty fans are concerned about how far the publisher will go in placing such ads in their titles. Will they, as some fans fear, not be displayed directly during gameplay? We know that some companies dream of having such "dynamic" ads. It's more likely that they won't expand the promotion of paid packages in the game to other sections of CoD, but instead, they'll increase the number of ads in the places where they already exist.
