160°

Activision Is Selling a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Duck Gun Charm for $5

In today's Black Ops 4 patch, Activision has now introduced a duck gun charm that it's selling for $5 real world money.

Jin_Sakai1742d ago

Leave it to EA and Activision to nickel and dime the consumer. Worst publishers on earth!

Fist4achin1741d ago

Sadly enough there are people who are going to buy into it...

I've got some ocean front property in Arizona for anyone interested!!!

TheGamez1001742d ago (Edited 1742d ago )

Got to the final tier last event just for fun and didnt have any other games to play.....not worth it....
Crap ton of grinding and shi**y rewards, only 2 or so items out of the 40-100 that are actually good. Then theres all the dlc wpns that are locked behind the lootboxes lol wtf. Most BS microtransactions ive seen in a premium full priced video game to date and sadly its not as exposed and being talked about as much as other publishers out there (EA and Bethesda).
What I fear MW will also go through....

Tankbusta401741d ago

MW will launch without all this...the review websites will gush about it...a month later it will be just like this crap,,,with pink guns and stupid crap

Nitrowolf21741d ago

Yeah I mean MW will no doubt launch with some MT but they’ll eventually role out a bunch of it a few months after launch

Pretty gross of activision to do

excaliburps1741d ago

Yes, exactly. :( Scared that MW will go through the same crap as BO4 and we'll be left with empty promises, and MTX out of the wazoo.

yomfweeee1741d ago

Stop blaming publishers for this. Find the assholes who actually pay for these things and have a conversation with them. Stop hating businesses for being businesses.

Applejack1741d ago

Yeah, don’t blame EA, Activision or any other publishers for implementing these scummy practices in the first place. /s

harmny1741d ago (Edited 1741d ago )

Well you won't be able to change anything by killing a few whales.

But I agree that business is business. Would you rather earn 25k or 100k a year. That's what microtransactions are. They make money whether you like them or not. Shareholders don't care about the hate of forum gamers.

LucasRuinedChildhood1741d ago

"Stop blaming drug cartels. Find the assholes who actually pay for these drugs and have a conversation with them. Stop hating drug cartels for being drug cartels." - yomfweeee, genius

yomfweeee1741d ago (Edited 1741d ago )

Let's compare something completely illegal to something not illegal. Who is the genius?

Rachel_Alucard1741d ago

Except Treyarch are the ones implementing this. Activision sets revenue goals they must meet each quarter and it's up to the dev how they do it. You can blame Acti for setting high revenue goals but keep in mind only Treyarch have been putting weapons inside lootboxes, refusing to do a currency trade in system for dupes, and adding more and more junk despite all the outcry.

yomfweeee1741d ago

They implement it because their consumers consume it. That is their job. Because some don't like it, they shouldn't do it? They are profiting from it. They will continue to do it until they do not profit from it. Nothing will change that ever.

I'm sorry it is so hard for you all to understand that.

Rachel_Alucard1741d ago

They implement it because their studio is garbage. The retention rate for BO4 is something nobody talks about but it's the worst in the series. That's a huge amount of losses and all they do is shovel all the trash on their whale playerbase who have a need to own everything. Their "consumers" are a select percent of people who buy everything. There's no point in catering to them when your overall losses are worse. Treyarch being the only one out of the 3 studios doing this despite the fact the other 2 refusing to do it tells me all I need to know.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1741d ago
akaFullMetal1741d ago

This is just screwed up pricing wise but then again people seem to be buying them. If people didnt buy them then they wouldn't offer these or hopefully as much. Just like DLC and now microtransactions it just takes a few whales and this becomes the norm. When people bring up these fears they get lambasted for fear mongering but look where we are.

Blu3_Berry1741d ago

I noticed that in the last 2 years, almost every major AAA publishers have now implemented microtransactions as their top priority. Those who are guilty of this are Activision, EA, 2K/Take-Two and Bethesda.

Despite alot of gamers including myself who dislike microtransaction, they're not going away anytime soon. It is a money-making machine so in the publisher's view, why on earth would they want to remove microtransactions? Would is the benefit of publishers removing microtransactions other than good-will?

Game costs for production has gone up over the years, and will continue to do so. Of course it's also important to manage budget correctly. They need to make their money somehow, so in my opinion it can go 3 ways.

1) Increase the standard retail price for AAA games. The standard price is $60 USD, so one option is that they increase it to $70 or even $80 USD to recover their spent resources quickly.

2) Implement a crap-ton of microtransactions. This is where we are at right now, with microtransactions being implemented in several games now, even single-player games.

3) Make more games as a live-service. There are plenty of live-service games right now that has sprouted for AAA publishers such as The Division, Anthem, Fallout 76, Warframe, Fortnite, Apex Legends to name a few. Imagine if all AAA games came out at launch with bare minimal content and slowly sprinkle content over the course of 3 years, alot of people will not like it. Personally, I would hate it if majority of games became a form of live service or episodic which some single-player games have done in the past. This is the least desirable action for me personally.

There's another factor that is also hurting publishers and developers from maximizing their profits. Those are used game sales and piracy. Both of these do not give any money to the publishers or the developers. Pretty self-explanatory. If they were to go back and restrict used sales and combat against piracy, they would see their profits possibly go up. That's another story altogether so I won't talk about that right now.

The point being, they want to make money quickly with rising cost for production and marketing. They gotta make their money somehow. Me personally, if I had to pick which option I would want publishers to do if forced to do so, then I would pick option 2 (implement microtranscations). I don't like this practice, but for me personally it has less of an impact to me overall then the other two options, especially since I don't buy microtrasnsactions to begin with.

The sad thing about all of this though, is that they ARE making money off of microtranactions. We have only ourselves to blame when we are the ones who keep buying it.

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290°

Cancelled Call of Duty Game "NX1" Gameplay Footage, Black Ops 4 "War" Mode" Surface

A cancelled Call of Duty game titled "NX1" had footage surface online, along with a Black Ops 4 unreleased mode called "War."

RaidenBlack113d ago

looks like the OG Infinite Warfare

Profchaos112d ago

Yeah it does look good wonder why it was canned

EvertonFC112d ago

Probably a proper game with no MT and they didn't see any profits 😂🤣

Name Last Name112d ago

That Neversoft logo took me back to Tony Hawk days. Sad to see this cancellation led to the studio closure.

Juancho51112d ago

It’s always sad to see great concepts destroyed so deep into development. They obviously had a lot of ideas and aren’t happy about it. Now withe layoffs even more videos like this will surface soon.

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530°

Xbox's Phil Spencer considers PS5 and Nintendo Switch players part of the Xbox community

This is Spencer's mindset after the Activision Blizzard acquisition closed

Read Full Story >>
gamesradar.com
Vengeance1138196d ago

What a horrifically toxic person, im sure in his mind Microsoft already acquired both Sony and Nintendo and they are all that's left in gaming.
Can't wait for 2027!

sparky77196d ago ShowReplies(15)
Eonjay195d ago ShowReplies(6)
darthv72195d ago

so... people who express positivity are toxic in your view? That's basically what you are saying right now. I know its easier to hate but it takes real strength to remain positive in the face of negativity.

As for him living rent free in your head... that will be $9.99 now.

Eonjay195d ago

This comment proves my earlier comment. There is nothing wrong with you. I have surmised that you are a developer and you are not dumb but in order to claim to be 'down with the Xbox' YOU have to become toxic yourself. He did not say anything you are implying. That's a toxic lie. Spencer is not expressing positivity. THAT is a toxic lie. People are not supposed to be positive in the face of consolidation that will lead to a worse situation for all of us. Ignoring that is TOXIC.

darthv72195d ago (Edited 195d ago )

^^man i wish i were a developer. I'm just an average joe who tries to be upbeat and optimistic even when the chips are down.

Petebloodyonion194d ago

@Darthv72
The spirit of Orchard looms over you!

fr0sty195d ago

He sees the writing on the wall, and knows that Xbox GamePass will eventually appear on both Sony and Nintendo's systems.

Gamingsince1981195d ago

It has to get on ps and Nintendo or xbox is dead by 2027, that's why. Xbox NEEDS gamepass on everything or they are out of business in 2027.

fr0sty194d ago (Edited 194d ago )

I don't see why people are disagreeing, Phil said it himself that if GP subs don't dramatically increase by then, Xbox is toast. Logically, the only way to pull that off is for them to go third party, as they aren't just going to magically start selling a ton more consoles. Even a new exclusive Bethesda IP hasn't even started to turn things around for them. They have not far from 100 billion dollars to recoup from all these purchases, and their shareholders will be out for blood soon.

Zeref194d ago (Edited 194d ago )

Can't wait to have all those Sony exclusives on my Xbox and on GamePass when MS acquires them 🔥🔥🔥

Shane Kim194d ago

The possibility of GP ending up on PS is much higher.

Gamingsince1981193d ago

Lol Xbox is going to be only a publisher by 2027 they won't be buying playstation, they need playstation more than anything to survive 🤣 you are trolling or dumb take your pick. Xbox is done, welcome to the future where xbox is a publisher releasing games on everything and playstation and Nintendo carry on as usual.

GrmpyolGamer 194d ago

He lives rent free in your mind

TheEroica194d ago

You should probably cry more about your inner bias.

itsmebryan194d ago

@Vengeance
What happens in 2027?

Vengeance1138194d ago

Xbox exits the gaming industry as Phil said if they don't get over 100M subs on GamePass by then it's not worth staying.
This number ofc being impossible as GP only has 25M subs now.

PhillyDonJawn194d ago

Vengeance the courts showed Xbox is more profitable than PS. So that make no sense

Gamingsince1981193d ago

@phily

No it didn't 🤣 Mandela effect in action in your world huh, Sony breaking records month on month year on year , xbox "we are a publisher by 2027 because no one is buying gamepass" yeah sounds like it's going well over at xbox. You are a clown 🤡

neutralgamer1992194d ago

would we be happy if he had come out and said screw nintendo and playstation? so what the heck do we want? MS have the money to buy and publishers are willing to sell. We have cult like fanboys on this site who will defend their box and brand even if their brand is doing wrong by gamers. Until we mature as a community greed with continue to rule supreme

i am so glad i am now a PC gamer. This nonsense has to stop. I have multiple store fronts offering competetive pricing and the ability to use cheat codes in my single player games to enjoy without all the MT

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 193d ago
MrDead196d ago

He wishes he had a community of gamers. I guess buying the market and banning gamers from games seems like a community for him, now everyone is as miserable as an Xbox owner

crazyCoconuts195d ago

Maybe he's foreshadowing a future where they're no longer making exclusive games... where the Xbox hardware is like... not as important?

MrDead195d ago (Edited 195d ago )

No longer making games? They never made games in the first place, thats how ms made the Xbox the least played platform. All they're doing now is buying up an industry and dictating who is and isn't allowed to play, gamers have got nothing from MSs deals except for less options for where to play and two publishers no longer competing.

Godmars290195d ago

MS has never seen Xbox hardware as important. Never.

It why they didn't buy vital parts for OG Xbox.
Why the 360 was rushed causing RRoD.
Why 1st edition XB1 was built around Kinect, and technically crippled as a result.
Its why they're talking more about streaming than Series X while not really talking about how Series S sells better. Is hindering the more powerful system.

Even when MS honestly tried making games, PC specs where more important than their own console. Alan Wake - that quantum game/TV I'm not bothering to recall - and that cop game - I'm also brain farting on - all where first shown on bleeding edge PC rigs, and subsequently failed to live up to first reveals for being built down to the consoles they should have been built for.

Phil/MS might be claiming a win because he bought an industry position Xbox has failed to earn, but if MS lives to type, then all that's going to lead to is disappointment and denial.

crazyCoconuts195d ago

@God, i couldn't disagree more. It wasn't until XB1 that MS started leaning into PC and cloud.
Up until then, getting you on Xbox hardware so you buy games via their platform was the ONLY business model that existed. Of course they saw their hardware as important. The OG Xbox had built-in ethernet and was quite a bit more powerful than it's rival PS2. The RROD wasn't on purpose in the 360. The Kinect was a hardware play to gain superiority in the way Nintendo did with their controllers. Now that they have pulled in PC and have expectations around Cloud, maybe they're pivoting their investments to a sector they think they can "win" in, but that's a relatively new concept.

Abear21194d ago

I believe they said it’s more about Gamepass on everything under the sun and that sub model, a possible future without consoles. Now they own most of the industry, crazy!

194d ago
+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 194d ago
italiangamer196d ago

Does this guy ever shut up with this blatantly fake and cheesy attitude?!

shinoff2183196d ago

Phil's on hallucinations again

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400°

So, Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard. How will this affect the rest of the industry?

The deal is done. Activision Blizzard is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft after two years of regulatory investigations.

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
216d ago Replies(8)
MrDead216d ago

Well no new games are coming out of these acquisitions, this is about control over the industry and IP hording for a subscription service. Seeing what a disaster subscription services have been for Hollywood I can't wait for MS to bring the joys of that to gaming.
This entire endeavour is to line the pockets of a handful of extremely wealthy people, they'll dump it as soon as they've sucked it dry or wrecked it.

Outside_ofthe_Box216d ago

If this doesn't help to up subscription services for Microsoft by the allotted time frame then nothing. Otherwise a shift to sub-services being the primary way we game and the consequences that come with that.

BeHunted216d ago (Edited 216d ago )

Microsoft now has 35 Game Studios, while Sony has 14 Game Studios. This is huge.....

216d ago Replies(1)
purple101216d ago

and yet...nothing that compares to, even - ratchet and clank in terms of fun, anyway

Barlos215d ago

Microsoft aren't interested in the studios they buy, they want the IPs.

ChasterMies215d ago

More isn’t always better, especially when Microsoft has such a poor track record of handling its own exclusives like Halo and Gears of War. And now Microsoft is in a position where its games are competing with its other games. Developers will be let go. Franchised will die.

Profchaos215d ago

And all they can produce is average content for their all you can eat buffet of games instead of allowing these studios to craft evergreen titles

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 215d ago
isarai216d ago (Edited 216d ago )

I mean the only thing that has happened so far with these acquisitions is a noticeable downgrade in quality and value in the games produced under MSs management. The only undeniable banger released, Hi-Fi Rush, they really didn't give a sh!t about, just shadow dropped it with quite literally zero marketing. Even to this day the only things I've heard about it have been from word of mouth. So probably just more of that 🤷‍♂️

Lightning77215d ago

"they really didn't give a sh!t about, just shadow dropped it with quite literally zero marketing."

Yeaaaah that's not at all what happened but hey let's just make up things because it's N4G and that's what we do around here.

So sure let's run with that.

isarai215d ago

https://www.ign.com/article...

Literally the trending term regarding it's release by pretty much anyone that covered it. So who made up what now? 😂

Flawlessmic215d ago

I mean he's not wrong lighting, they did drop it with zero marketing lol

I remember shadow drop was the word of the month and how there should be more shadow drops

215d ago
Crows90215d ago

Or you could enlighten people with your superior knowledge...but sure let's just run with not actually making a point.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 215d ago
Stanjara215d ago

They really don't know what people want...or do they????

Lightning77215d ago (Edited 215d ago )

You literally just killed your own argument. It went viral, internally so they shadow dropped it.

Not MS didn't care about the game and didn't want to market it.

Congrats at killing your own argument.

@crows I make way more points than anyone here. Isarai literally just took down his own argument so read his link.

isarai215d ago

No i didn't LMAO don't know how you came to that conclusion. If it went viral internally, why not drop, at the very least, a trailer and some banners for the game? That game dropped with nothing. Not like MS don't have the money. Even after launch I really don't recall seeing any official marketing for it. Again, if they cared about the game, even minimal marketing would show that.

Also, THAT is not my point, but a sidenote to my point. My point is so far MS has shown nothing but poor management excluding the one game. Every other game has launched with a ton of cut corners, disappointments, and/or caveat to get some fun out of it be it microtransactions, waiting for a roadmap of updates to fix it, or ignoring blaring issues.

KwietStorm_BLM215d ago

It went viral internally? What does that even mean? LOL you still haven't countered anything that was said, because you can't reute facts. I make more points than anyone! Lmao

Lightning77215d ago

@Kwiet just read the freakin article isarai linked it for godsakes.

"That's how it actually built up within Bethesda...Some people had played it and they spoke about it to their other [colleagues]. They're like, 'Did you see that game that they're making there?' There's this weird sort of viral positivity to this just playing this game, and Game Pass just felt like an excellent opportunity to let something...lose that skepticism immediately by just playing it and people just talking about it."

It was a positive reception internally and was Skepticism if it was an actual good game or not. A surprise drop that paid off. So I ask again where did MS say didn't the game was crap and didn't care about marketing it like isarai?

Again he owned himself.

I'm talking to 12 years olds I swear... I have to be. Y'all are actual children.

isarai215d ago

Bro stop, you're just making yourself look stupid 🤣😂

" where did MS say didn't the game was crap and didn't care about marketing it like isarai"

First off learn how to construct a sentence, damn near had an aneurysm trying to read that.
Second, I literally called the game "an undeniable banger", quite the opposite of "crap"
Third, MS didn't "say" anything, and that's the problem. Ironically you proved what I'm saying. Despite it "going viral internally" MS for whatever reason still didn't have any confidence in it. Instead they looked at something obviously good with "skepticism", and so didn't market it as not to dump more money into it. They actually cannot see something great sitting right in front of them.

Lightning77215d ago (Edited 215d ago )

"viral internally, why not drop, at the very least, a trailer and some banners for the game?"

Why does it matter? It had over 2 million players and Tango even opened up new posistions and expanded the studio. Complaining for no reason.

"Again, if they cared about the game, even minimal marketing would show that."

Nintendo dropped Metroid Prime remaster from GameCube with out advertisement I guess they "didn't care"about that game also right? Btw that game also turned about to be a success. So where does it say MS didn't give a shit about Hifi like you claimed?

Sometimes just releasing a game is better than over hyped ad campaigns. Yes they even advertised the game afterwards through ads on social media Xbox store etc. You're not winning this argument so might as well stop while you're ahead.

As for the rest your comment your taking about Redfall. What Microtransactions? Forza or Redfall doesn't have Microtransaction? Question why do you make up things?

isarai215d ago

"Why does it matter?" ... So when you've been proven wrong, you just say it doesn't matter? 🤣If it doesn't matter why are you so hellbent on proving otherwise? I couldn't have asked for a funnier argument. And if you want the answer to that go back and read my comments, learn to read and do your own research. Figure it out.

Profchaos215d ago

Been seeing this for years since Crackdown 3 was one of my earliest realisations that the quality wasn't there and gamepass with simply a dumping ground.
Sure they may have one big game per year that receives a little extra love but happily shive something like halo infinite out there to be picked apart for a few weeks by the masses

Lightning77215d ago

"First off learn how to construct a sentence, damn near had an aneurysm trying to read that.
Second, I literally called the game "an undeniable banger", quite the opposite of "crap"

I was multitasking. This how it all went down.

You said "Hi-Fi Rush, they really didn't give a sh!t"

You linked an article that went completely went against your little theory in fact they said it was a positive reception internally. I asked where didn't say MS didn't give a crap about the game?

"Third, MS didn't "say" anything, and that's the problem."

Ok cool so clearly did give a damn about the game. Btw the shadow drop was 100% on Tango.

"MS for whatever reason still didn't have any confidence in it."

Not enough confidence they showed it off at the xbox direct and dropped it that same day? Again it was Tangos call to do so not MS. You don't have any facts just the typical "MS is bad 100% of the time because so that must be it!" Argument. Yeah it's not gonna fly and you'll have to try harder than that.

Lightning77215d ago (Edited 215d ago )

"Why does it matter?" ... So when you've been proven wrong,"

Proven wrong about what!? You didn't prove Jack. You were concern trolling about hi fi not having marketing and said MS didn't care about the game. In which I not only showed you where you were wrong in your own post, that you linked, you decided to make up claims that MS didn't care about the game. In which again they made a whole direct about Hifi and dropped out that same damn day hence "shadow drop" and it was Tango who made that call.

One last time and keep up. I said why does it matter in the grand scheme of things when the game was a success regardless of marketing? Context is everything.

It's a K. O. I told you were losing this one.

Smart of you to avoid the microtransactions comment. You knew you were wrong.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 215d ago
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