Call of Duty players already want Black Ops 6 to make major realism change

Call of Duty players have expressed their frustrations once again with the cosmetics and skin bundles in the newer games, calling for major changes to be made in Black Ops 6.

Over the years, Call of Duty cosmetics have evolved exponentially. From grinding for the Fall camo in the original Modern Warfare 2, those who left the franchise would hardly recognize the Gundam skins and Nicki Minaj operators you can find flying around Warzone and MW3 in 2024.

This has rubbed some players the wrong way, especially those who want a more realistic mil-sim experience, closer to the COD of old. Now, players are asking for a return to simplicity with Black Ops 6, which launches on October 25.

“COD used to have an identity, it was the tacticool [sic] shooter that took itself seriously, even if the fanbase didn’t reflect that,” said one user in a post on the Black Ops 6 subreddit, before elaborating, “Now, it’s a clown show with laser guns because the ‘iT wAs NeVer ReaLisTiC aNyWaY’ ADHD zoomer crowd can’t visually process anything that isn’t bright pink.”

Many of the 200+ comments on the Reddit post were widely in agreement, with the top-voted comment simply saying that they wouldn’t mind “if they just took all operators out and had us run around as generic military goons again,” but keep some of the more outlandish weapon skins.

In response, one player added that 2017’s Modern Warfare Remastered did this well, while another expanded that Riot Games FPS Valorant has done a better job: “No cosmetics that alter character silhouettes, not even recolors for Agent. They put all the focus into weapon cosmetics, and they honestly have some really dope blueprints. This means you always know what character you’re looking at.”

Obviously, Valorant is a different game, as knowing which Agent your opponent is running is vital to tracking the progress of a round, and knowing what to expect from them due to their abilities.

While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much of it is from Call of Duty bundles, in 2022 Activision Blizzard reported more than $5 billion in revenue from microtransactions and downloadable content, so there’s clearly a desire from players for this kind of content. Given this, it’s unlikely Activision will be removing these types of cosmetics anytime soon.