Stealthy Black Ops 6 Season 1 change makes unlocking weapons pay-to-win
Activision Activision re-ignited the pay-to-win debate in Season 1 Reloaded by locking new weapons behind store bundles and time-based events.
At the start of BO6 Season 1, players unlocked the Saug SMG and Krig C AR through the Battle Pass. This includes free-to-play players, who could earn both weapons in the Battle Pass without purchasing it.
MW2 and MW3 both used this system. When a mid-season update added new weapons, most MW2 and MW3 guns were unlocked by completing an additional Battle Pass sector. BO6 uses a different format for unlocking mid-season weapons.
Season 1 Reloaded introduced the Power Drill, Sirin 9mm, Maelstrom, and AMR Mod 4. Instead of adding new Battle Pass sections for each weapon, they were all the final reward for events.
Offering something to work toward isn’t an issue. However, it just so happened that at the start of each event, Activision coincidentally offered a store bundle with the weapon so players could skip the event by paying.
Season 1 Reloaded event system drives players away
In the latest example, BO6 added a store bundle with the AMR Mod 4 that cost 1,800 CoD Points (around $17 USD) about 40 minutes before the Archie’s Festival event started, which has the AMR 4 as the final reward.
Activision also released a 1,800 CoD Point bundle for the Maelstrom, 2,800 CoD Point bundle for the Sirin 9mm, and 1,400 CoD Point bundle for the Power Drill bundle on the same day the corresponding events started.
With that in mind, you would have had to spend over $60 for all four new weapons if you didn’t want to do the events. Fortunately, players could earn XP quickly for three of these events to unlock the gun within a few days.
ActivisionHowever, the Hit List event took all the power out of players’ hands. The event started on November 21 and ended on December 4. The Sirin 9mm was locked behind a community challenge, and players had to get 50 billion kills collectively.
Because of that, the final event wasn’t completed until one day before the event ended. It also didn’t help public perception that the Sirin 9mm had the most expensive bundle among new Season 1 Reloaded weapons.
Additionally, Activision caught heat during the event because players questioned the legitimacy of the kill count since the tracker mysteriously froze at 25 billion kills. Activision revealed that the team had to fix an issue on the backend to resolve it, but some questioned if it wasn’t all just a ploy to delay the weapon unlock.
This new event and bundle system goes against the integrity of keeping multiplayer and Warzone balanced for all players.
Besides the AMR Mod 4, none of the new Season 1 Reloaded weapons are that powerful, leaving little reason to purchase these bundles. But if Season 2 Reloaded follows the same format and the new weapons are meta, you will be left behind if you don’t buy a bundle.
BO6 and Warzone’s public image has already taken a hit this week, so pushing more microtransactions on users is just about the last thing this game needs right now.
Nadeshot recently announced he is stepping away from BO6 because of “dogsh*t” servers and cheating issues. CoD content creators also predicted a massive falloff due to declining viewership numbers.
Numbers suggest they could be right. Warzone lost over 102,000 players, or 32.6% of its player base, on Steam over the last 30 days.