In once again providing evidence to the idea that greed is one of, if not their main operating business principle, Activision Blizzard is now charging Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III players a whopping $80 USD for the opportunity to wield an in-game (and reportedly unimpressive) replica of the B.E.A.S.T. glove worn by the titular simian kaiju in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Usable in the game’s multiplayer modes, upon being brought into battle, the B.E.A.S.T. glove grants players the ability to not only quickly punch their enemies to death (the glove’s damage output is on par with a standard melee weapon rather than the default melee attack), but also taunt them with a special ape-like, chest-beating emote.
Unfortunately for players, it should be noted that for all of its visual flair, the glove cannot be skinned with previously earned camouflage options.
Instead, players must earn a set of exclusive B.E.A.S.T. glove camouflage options via various sets of in-game challenges.
Admittedly a non-offensive piece of DLC in and of itself, what pushes the weapon’s existence into the realm of absurdity is that, instead of being sold on its own, it can only be acquired by buying a total of four Godzilla x King Kong: The New Empire collaborative cosmetic packs.
Each themed after one of the film’s four main kaijus – Godzilla, Kong, Shimo, and the Skar King – these packs grant players access to two weapon skins, a decal, a loading screen, a charm, and a character skin, as well as one ‘part’ of the aforementioned B.E.A.S.T gauntlet.
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At current, each pack retails for a total of 2,400 COD Points (or $19.99 USD).
Thus, should a player wish to acquire all the pieces to Kong’s new Thanos cosplay accessory, they will need to fork out a total of 9,600 COD Points (~$80 USD) – more than the actual cost of the actual base Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III title – to Activision Blizzard.
As noted above, rather than being an unfortunate exception to the norm, such egregious corporate greed is par for the course when it comes to Activision Blizzard.
In recent months, not only has the newly-acquired Microsoft subsidiary responded to the exceptionally lackluster profits generated by Overwatch 2’s first PvE mission pack by scrapping their entire plans for the game mode, but they’ve also taken to raising the prices in Diablo IV‘s in-game store to exorbitant levels.
Perhaps the best example of Diablo IV‘s insulting cash shop is the Dark Pathways pack.
For $30 USD, players are granted 1,000 pieces of Platinum in-game currency (which is worth roughly $10 USD), as well as the items needed to change their respective portal graphic from the standard ‘blue magic swirl’ to one of five other options: a blue storming Tempest Gate, a fiery red Warpath, a turquoise-tinted Netherworld Threshold, a purple-slash-pink Transit Artery, or a yellow entrance into the Wildroot Way.
However, while the pack’s price alone – essentially $20 real world dollars for what amounts to different color skins for a single in-game element – warrants all the disdain and condemnation players can muster, it should also be noted that each skin “can only be used by the applicable character class”.
In other words, each portal skin is hard-locked to a single class, with absolutely no way to circumvent this restriction.
