Call of Duty's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover costs like $90 and even the die-hards are in shellshock: 'Cash cow-abunga!'

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Black Ops 6. — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

The latest crossover for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Radical! Except it turns out that the cost… that's gonna be a major bummer, dude. The TMNT content arrives as part of the Season 02 Reloaded content, and in its infinite rapaciousness Activision Blizzard has separated-out each of the four turtles into their own premium bundle.

The announcement post doesn't give the exact cost but, based on the standard pricing across previous collaborations, each premium bundle will cost 2,400 COD points, which themselves will set you back $19.99 (£16.70). So if you want to run around as Leo, Donnie, Raph and Mikey that'll be a cool $80, and even then there's one more thing: The premium TMNT event pass, which among other cosmetics includes the Splinter skin, is another 1,100 COD points or $10. So if you want to go all-in on the TMNT, we're likely looking at $90.

Necessary caveat: No-one has to buy these things, they're purely cosmetic, and if you ask me the idea of the turtles running around with assault rifles is beyond stupid anyway. But on that latter point, the Fortnite vibes around COD have been growing stronger for years, and this feels emblematic of it. The happy accident of Epic's game is that the soft-edged aesthetic translates remarkably well across the enormous range of characters it now incorporates. With COD's more realistic visual style, a lot of this stuff just looks a bit dumb.

The top post on the CODWarzone subreddit by one JangoFett features plenty of fans livid about the crossover and specifically the price, and titled: "Activision casually glossing over the fact that they want you to pay $80+ if you want the 4 Turtles, plus another $10+ if you want the TMNT event pass rewards. Call of Duty's Gross greed strikes again... despicable!”

"The Turtles don’t use guns," says A Pensive Monkey. "Their fingers wouldn’t even…I hate this…" Soupy-E is straight in there: "Cash cow-abunga!"

COD x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tease | Call of Duty: Warzone & Black Ops 6 - YouTube

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There are plenty more reactions along the lines of don't buy it / it's cosmetic / I'm going to buy it anyway and screw you. But what seems to underlie a lot of the disquiet is that it's "$80 for a few ninja turtles lmao pull the other one," as Sleepy Titan puts it. The Fortnite comparison is made frequently, not least because Epic's game is free-to-play and also offers a TMNT bundle that nets you all four for $34.

The COD x TMNT premium bundles are also distinct from the standard battle pass and premium battle pass ($10 and $30 respectively). So there are lots of ways to spend your money in this game you've already paid an upfront price for. Call of Duty: Warzone is free-to-play, but Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is not.

This collab follows COD showing a stunning lack of self-awareness with its Squid Game crossover, the monetisation of which ended up annoying a lot of players (probably the same ones). Black Ops 6 generally has seen an avalanche of weird skins since launch and doesn't seem to be a game with any particularly strong identity of its own. But Activision Blizzard's laughing all the way to the bank anyway: Black Ops 6 is the most successful entry in series history.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."