Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is offering players a third-party audio feature as an add-on for $20, leading to sharp criticism from players. The game comes with an Enhanced Headphone Mode that utilizes technology crafted by a company called Embody. Headset users can further enhance this audio feature by paying for a personalized audio profile.
Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s audio add-on ‘pay-to-hear?’
Although this add-on is new to the game, third-party enhancements aren’t new to the world of audio technology. Black Ops 6’s standard audio features are more than enough, so those with headsets who choose not to pay for a personalized profile won’t experience a negative impact on gameplay.
However, that hasn’t stopped players from expressing concerns about the feature. Dubbing it “pay-to-hear,” players fear that those who fork out the cash may have a slight advantage in a multiplayer/competitive setting.
“Players can choose to enhance HRTF [Head Related Transfer Function] experience even further by creating a personalized profile that takes into account the player’s physical attributes, such as the shape of their ear or head,” Activision said of Embody’s add-on.
PS5 players can utilize Sony’s own personalized 3D audio profile feature, which was recently introduced via a system update.
This is an unusual pairing as Ballerina is coming to Call of Duty.
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Call of Duty added in-game ads to the Black Ops 6 loadout screen, but Activision is claiming the gross update was added by mistake.
It's amazing how many companies are open with their inability to properly manage software releases while at the same time revealing they have designs developed and ready for full release to do things they know will annoy gamers.
Microsoft has certainly used that excuse in at least 2-3 Windows updates over the recent years over ads in the Start Menu or something like that
A turd of a game that weights 160GB ... they can showe their code up their deployment interface !!!
As many times as you keep listening. Maybe you should write them and tell them how you feel.
"oh so sooowy, we wanted to do iiit, but obviously not launch it yet, so its totally not our fault, it was fully functional tho lolzzzz"
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 4 broke the game like every previous update, and it's all for CoD HQ. Isn't that enough to kick it away?
There's always these random new bugs introduced and bugs that have still been there since day one. But do you know what's still been working absolutely fine? The microtransactions baby 😒
You're right. Somehow nothing else works except ways to max out your credit card.
Daymn right! Sometimes the game's not running but the Store tab works flawlessly.
Enough is enough. They've been given more than enough money to have a working product. It's the deja vu constantly with this franchise.
I think dedicated reviews are needed, like we have for DLC content. Maybe its worth the additional $20, maybe not.
No matter how I twist my mind to try to understand it somehow, it doesn't stop coming across really silly.
Are you saying that the thing a PS5 does for free for EVERY game will cost $20 just for ONE CoD iteration on Xbox?
Lol, why isn’t it included with Game Pass??
Or, does it exist BECAUSE of Game Pass😏
Tried it in Cyberpunk, got some nifty features I guess but honestly didnt make much difference, for me anyway
On PC just get steelseries GG Sonar for free no matter the headphones brand, unsurpassed surround for me for free. Little bit awkward to set up but when done it's an amazing sound stage and much better than even dolby atmos for gaming (although the latter is better for music/movies)