Black Ops 6 has the most ridiculous microtransaction in gaming history

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is charging players for better audio on Xbox, PlayStation and PC, annoying many fans.

[Jin_Sakai]

So glad I’m done with this garbage franchise.

[Obscure_Observer]

I never cared about this garbage franchise. All I want from it is to make big money to fund our Xbox first party games!

[vTuro24]

My dude, they spent 70 billion on the publisher that owns this garbage franchise. If you think the lack of Xbox first party games was ever a money issue then I got a bridge to sell you.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You're not a real person. It's impossible.

[goken]

Yeah… hopefully they do something good. All this xbox incompetence is allowing Sony to slack off and make the nonsensical stupid mistakes of late.

[TallDarknWavy]

The excess money will go to Executive salaries, nothing else.
You will still see a plethora of remakes and creatively bankrupt ideas, with very little in the way of originality. Greedy executives think they can replace everyone with AI, and so you see the massive layoffs we've been seeing with that exact intent.
The problem is, once you fire everyone, no one creative is left to give any good ideas.
This is why GTA6 has been in development hell since 2013. Creativity can't be automated.

[raWfodog]

Maybe they could have used the $70b that they paid for Activision to actually fund their 1st party games? Cut out the middle man? That doesn’t make better sense to you?

[Obscure_Observer]

@raWfodog

"Maybe they could have used the $70b that they paid for Activision to actually fund their 1st party games? Cut out the middle man? That doesn’t make better sense to you?"

For me, yes. To them, no, I don´t think so.

With the ever increasing costs of development, those companies are becoming more and more risk-averse when comes to new games/IPs and/or willing to invest in new in-house studios.

To buy whole publishers or entire established studios and their IPs is by far more viable option for those companies nowadays.

Take Sony for instance as they´d acquired eleven third party gaming studios in the last five years. Created zero from the ground up.

You see, it´s not about what we think. It never was. Those companies will always pursue what´s healthier for their pockets.

I´ll pursue what´s healthier to mine. So Gamepass for me all year. Happy gaming!

[just_looken]

Everyone joked about paying for bullets but here we are paying for better audio talk about pay to win.

But call of duty this year is still the best AAA fps game

[Eonjay]

About the disagrees: What 2024 FPS is better than this, honestly? And that being said I also agree that the idea of paying for better audio is absolutely stupid and should not exist.

[thorstein]

@Eonjay
"What 2024 FPS is better than this"

Concord.

[just_looken]

@Eonjay

The thing is the only AAA first person shooter in 2024 is call of duty

Now yes xdefiant is out there so you could say that game also but it has classes laid out like a hero shooter just like concord sense thorstein mentioned it.

I will admit i never played this new cod yet but beyond skins did they do hero style stuff yet?

[porkChop]

This isn't even a new idea. Final Fantasy XIV and Cyberpunk 2077 both have spatial audio upgrades from the same company. It's a 3rd party that creates these audio packs, it's not sold by Activision.

[Noskypeno]

I'm wondering if it's the same situation as those companies that sell products that make you lose hair, and then sell products that make the hair regrow? Making you buy two products instead of one. They might still be in a position where the higher ups get a cut, even if it's not part of the company.

[isarai]

Last two cods i bought at release was cod 3 on the ps2 and cold war just to have something to play at 120fps on my new tv. I can't stand most AAA publishers, Activision being one of the ones i hate most

[Kaii]

Getting closer to what that EA exec said years ago about people shilling $$ to get ammo asap In the game.
These types of additions to games are disgusting ^.^

[just_looken]

Remember gta+ already has fast ammo

[thorstein]

Gauntlet, the arcade game, did this.

[Knushwood Butt]

Elf shot the food!

[jznrpg]

MS has to make that money back so it’s only going to get more ridiculous

[CPTN MITCHELL]

I blame game pass and everyone that continues to support this garbage of a franchise

[goken]

We should petition for sony to stop giving us CoD with PS plus. I’ve got s bunch of CoDs from ps plus and I don’t even play em…

[Knushwood Butt]

I'll sign that.

[Einhander1972]

"However, those who want a personalized profile that is more suited to their ear shape—something some PlayStation 5 games do for free—they will need to pay extra."

This is a system level feature on PlayStation, it's always free.

And even if you want to break it down to the game level (which is ridiculous), no PlayStation game has ever charged for anything close to this type of thing.

[TL24SS]

The problem is this, you have idiots actually paying for it so they'll just think "Oh, it's working, they want these features and they want to be charged".

Just don't buy the game, let it rot.

[Demetrius]

Lmao it'll still sale, their campaigns are way too damn short, I never understood paying 70+ for a 6-8 hour game nope not worth it. If I'm paying 70 for some it gotta be atleast 35 hours for 100% completion. Throughly made too, spiderman 2, robocop, even ac mirage I got my money's worth outta those. Plus these folks got double the amount of cod titles compared to assassins creed why no one never mentions that?? Smh cod need a game atleast 15-20hr sheesh. Last time I played cod was modern warfare 2, that was a lil after it came out. I dont even buy these titles or have convos about em with others in gamestop or if I run into another cool gamer. I just dont see the worth in wasting money on something you can beat literally in a day.

[anast]

It's a sewer. Why pay for catching hep. ?

[Aloymetal]

Lol😂

[DivineHand125]

What would make this worse is if it gives people an advantage in multiplayer.

[BABI-PANGPANG]

Unbelievable how much I’m saving now that I’m not buying games like I used to. Every time they add some ridiculous 'feature,' it just makes me want to hold onto my money even more.

[Knushwood Butt]

Sad but same here, partly because I started my own business and have almost no income, partly because I upgraded to PS Plus Premium and there's more than enough there to cover all of my gaming requirements, and partly because there isn't much new coming out that I want, although I do plan to get Silent Hill 2 and Astrobot. Silent Hill still getting patched so I'm in no rush and will chip away at my third run of LoUP1.

[BABI-PANGPANG]

I totally get you. I had PS Plus Premium for years myself, but it started to feel a bit pricey for what was offered. Back in the PS3/PS4 days, the monthly games really stood out, but over the last year or so, the lineup has felt pretty weak, with lots of repeats, some good but often quite dated. So it was often the case that I’d already played most of them. The games I really enjoy tend to come out on PC as well, usually with better deals. Plus, online gaming is free on PC, which helps a lot. Since I already use my PC for concept art work as a freelancer, I figured it was worth investing in a gaming setup.

I did pick up Astro Not recently though, as it reminded me of the classic PlayStation days (still miss you, LittleBigPlanet). Also got Silent Hill and Metaphor, but I haven’t had the chance to dig into them just yet. The recent releases are definitely more interesting, though. And aside from the new stuff, I’m also really looking forward to replaying older games with mods, which gives them a whole new life.

So yeah, it was a bit of an investment, and if I didn’t need it for heavy programs at work, I might not have gone for it. But just looking at how much I used to spend on games back then compared to this year, the difference is drastic.

[Knushwood Butt]

The concept art freelance work sounds pretty cool. I hope that goes well for you.

Don't know if it's the same thing but I've been looking through the concept art for LoU and most of that stuff is awesome. I envy anyone that can create that.

[BABI-PANGPANG]

Ah, thanks! It’s been a lot of fun. The last project I worked on was the Arizona Sunshine Remake, which just got released, and it's amazing to see how well it’s been received :)

[hiawa23]

No surprise as MS paid billions plus lawyer fees for Activision, so I expected microtransactions. Love the COD games.

[Ninver]

Gotta be a bot. Or do you work for MS?

[FPS_D3TH]

Microsoft nor Activision make any money on this and it’s essentially a scam. People mad because news accounts framed this as some in game feature. It’s not. Rage bait doing its thing and y’all eat it up because you hate the franchise

[Doomeduk]

Doc is saying how the audio being bad in that there's no vertical direction

[BlackDoomAx]

Effectively it's a new low. But we can go even lower!

[goken]

Sure.
MS can add Ubi and EA into their little family.
MS, Activision, Ubi, EA, real legion of doom stuff lol

[Pyrofire95]

about 5 years ago I bought the Dolby license for windows. As far as I know this isn't much different.
I'm not defending this, rather, I think it sounds pretty pointless and annoying that it's even a thing.
Products have been sold for decades with different sound profiles. I think it was the Playstation headsets that even have a mode called 'shooter' that attempted to enhance footsteps.
idk, it's weird.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Unacceptable

[BQ32]

Anybody that plays NBA 2k says hold my beer because as bad as you think any other game’s micro transactions are, I guarantee 2K’s is several times worse.

[Ninver]

Wow what a piece of s#%t company. The audacity is quite inconceivable. Just wow!

[Exthun]

My Xbox woke with a full ad of COD BO 6, I pay 500 for the console please NO ADS, the console wasn't free.

[Lionsguard]

I haven't played a CoD game in probably 10+ years and my life has been all the richer for it. Why do people submit themselves to this?

[Walalon]

stockholm syndrome and/or stupidity at this point.

[PRIMORDUS]

Too bad you can't torrent the game. I wouldn't play this shit just seed and share out of spite. COD needs to just go away for a long time. This is the sports game of FPS, same shit every year.

[fsfsxii]

Sad sad insignificant individual.

[gold_drake]

gotta make those billions back somehow am i right MS?

glad i moved on from it.

lol can u imagjne asking players to pay money to have better audio? its ridiculous.

they all need to be slapped

[Miacosa]

Now that COD is in Games Pass, MS needs to offset the loss of revenue. COD is kind of like a free to play model now so nickel and dime upcharges are going to be at an all-time high. The best thing to do is vote with your wallet and not engage.

[Asterphoenix]

COD is been a joke for years it lost its soul once the original creators left IW. AAA publishers just looking at more ways to charge people.

[S2Killinit]

Garbage game. Bring back Medal of Honor.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

Got to earn them billions back some how...

[zacly]

horse armour?

[Prayingathiest]

Suprise suprise the consumer is getting rinsed

[Walalon]

And people still buy it.. now it's the consumers side that loves to get scammed, if we vote with our wallets and giving them the middle finger they will not try this kind of things. But oh boy oh boy 🤷🏻