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The announcement of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4” has been characterized by a lot of big changes in terms of gameplay. However, its publisher, Activision, recently had another surprise for fans after announcing that the game’s post-launch content can only be accessed by players who have the seasons pass, called Black Ops Pass.
It has been a common strategy for many game developers and publishers to launch a season pass that grants access to typically four sets of DLC within the first year of the title’s release. While this also offers a less expensive way of getting all post-launch content, honestly, this is also one way for publishers to ensure that players are compelled to buy all DLC packs.
In “Call of Duty’s” case, Activision is not new to introducing season passes, but it has also given players the option to buy DLC packs individually. This option changed this week with the announcement of Black Ops Pass.
Right now, Black Ops Pass is only available to special editions of the game but will be offered separately at a later time. Regardless, however, many “Black Ops 4” fans are not happy with this restrictive method of offering DLC.
In a post on the “Call of Duty” sub-Reddit, a fan argued that critics of Black Ops Pass do not expect anything for free.
“The problem we do have is with dividing an already shrinking playerbase. On top of that, the people who do purchase the pass will have less people to play with then those who don't, using past CODs as reference, especially later on in the games life cycle. At which point the extra maps then become essentially useless and the extra $40 spent wasted,” Reddit user Z3KE_SK1 explained.
The fan added, “There are plenty of other options Treyarch and Activision can use to monetize this game without dividing the playerbase. Every AAA game releasing this year and the next are following through with this, even some under the Activision umbrella, it's time for COD to get with the times.”
Activision is yet to respond to the growing backlash from its fans accusing it of putting up a restrictive paywall and disallowing them to have more freedom in choosing what content they want to buy in the first season of “Black Ops 4.”
“Black Ops 4” is slated for an Oct. 12 release on the PC (via Battle.net), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
