After ‘Call Of Duty’ In-Game Item Adverts Spark Outrage, Activision Claims “Feature Test” Went Live “In Error”
After successfully quashing the rumor that they had made several unpleasant changes to the Call of Duty battle pass system, Activision has now found themselves facing a genuine controversy in the form of an apparent “error” that resulted in Black Ops 6 and Warzone players being hit with ads for various items within their respective cash shops.
On May 29th, the fourth and latest season of the shared Call of Duty ecosystem went live, bringing with it new maps, modes, and battle passes for the free-to-play Warzone and full $70 Black Ops 6 – as well as menu-level in-game item adverts.
Appearing on the loadout, weapon, and event selection screens, these adverts were essentially unavoidable, as players would have to scroll past them to select their desired options.
But to the surprise of no one, as seen across the /r/blackops6 Reddit community, the discovery of this feature was less ’cause for celebration’ and more ‘a call to arms against Activision’.
“JFC it’s bad enough that this game already raised the [premium battle pass] cost and hasn’t fixed any bugs at all that actually affect the majority of players,” decried one user. “This clearly was the implementation that mattered.”
“Really? I have to see this s–t now even in the loadouts,” balked another who shared a screenshot showing the ‘Reactive: Peak Performance” item bundle at the top of their loadout list. “At least the store is getting attention! lol.”
Sharing a picture wherin the View Askewniverse ‘Bluntman and Chronic’ bundle sat atop their event menu, one player sacracsitally encouraged, “Don’t miss the ‘opportunity to buy skins’ event!”
Launching into a full-blown tirade against Activision, another Reddit user exploded, “Dude what the f–k is this new update.”
“Let me start by saying that content wise, I like the update and think it has some good stuff,” they continued. “BUT THEY KEEP BREAKING THE GAME WITH EVERY SINGLE SEASON AND MIDSEASON UPDATE, AND SOMEHOW GET EVEN MORE GREEDY WITH EACH ONE.”
“Activision is such a f—–g lazy company that don’t even play test their own f—–g game, AND REFUSE TO ACTUALLY HELP THE GAME WORK,” their raged further boiled over. “Oh, but at least we got more marketing for the absolute d—–t within the shop. Usually I try to be positive about the game and, honestly, try to look on the bright side. This update literally cannot make me do that. This is inexcusable and terrible to see. I might very well be quitting COD next year because of this laziness, and honestly the disgusting job that the devs do.”
With complaints flooding in from practically every corner of their player base, Activision took to the official Call of Duty Updates account on June 2nd to explain the situation.
“A UI feature test that surfaced select store content in the Loadout menus was published in the Season 04 update in error,” Activision ultimately informed the public. “This feature has now been removed from the live game.”
Ultimately, whether or not this truly was an accident on Activision’s part will likely never be truly confirmed.
However, what can be confirmed is that if such a feature is already in the testing stage, it’s only a matter of time until it – or something similar – is fully deployed.
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