Over the weekend a Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 player noticed something different about the weapon select menu: for some reason there were bundle ads embedded into it. This feature has since been taken down by Activision, which claims it was just a mistake, but even just a glimpse of these ads was enough to infuriate players.
"Did they seriously add bundle ads to the weapon select menu," JustTh4tOneGuy says in a Reddit post (via IGN). "It's bad enough that this game already raised Blackcell's cost and hasn't fixed any bugs at all that actually affect the majority of players. This clearly was the implementation that mattered."
Did they seriously add bundle ads to the weapon selection menu? from r/blackops6
Other players pointed out that the ads wouldn't even be that bad if they were in a free-to-play game like Warzone, but Black Ops 6 is a premium title which still goes for $40. "It really feels like one of those free cell phone games from a tiny studio begging you for money at every turn," one player says. "Pathetic for a full-price, standalone game from a huge developer."
The ads have since been taken down. "A UI feature test that surfaced select store content in the Loadout menus was published in the Season 04 update in error," Activision says in a social media post. "This feature has now been removed from the live game." While Activision claims that this was just a test that wasn't meant to see the light of day, I'm sure the uproar from fans sped up its removal.
Even if this was an honest mistake, the fact that Activision was running a test like this clearly means that ads are a feature that it feels is worth trying out and that it's at least being talked about.
But this is far from the first time Call of Duty has fallen into a monetisation controversy. Earlier this year Activision released a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover which cost a whopping $90. A price that was too high for even the most dedicated fans to pay: "Call of Duty's gross greed strikes again… despicable."
Then there were the $28 Squid Game skins which not only missed the entire point of the show but were also just too expensive considering how many different outfits were up for grabs.
So it's hardly surprising that Activision would be thinking about new ways to boost its income and advertise even more ways for its players to spend their cash in Call of Duty, but just because it's predictable doesn't mean it's any less gross.
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