Activision Managed To Be EVEN Worse

[@BellularNews]

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[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

It will never be the norm. It's one of the reasons AAA gaming is fading away. I'm at the point where I will not buy a game until I read plenty of reviews and find out how bad the microtransactions are. If everyone did that, the gaming industry would take a huge financial hit and quickly change course.

[@kwisatzhaderach9591]

@BellularNews are you ever going to discuss the "elephant in the room"?

[@2Eil]

From what you said that you remember challenges in the games to unlock stuff. That hit hard. I remember that that was basically the only reason to care about cosmetics, so you can go brag to your friends. Now, it's like you buy something and you don't even want to let your friends know that you've bought it because you know for a fact it's a waste of money. (I haven't done in game skins at all for years now, but it causes games to be ruined.) I would much rather unlock something, feel accomplished, and be able to say, for instance, "I beat Halo LASO alone to unlock this." Hayabusa armor for Halo 3 I believe.

[@trolltyrant8344]

Guys look up sker ritual if you like zombies it’s a good replacement I really really recommend it

[@powerfulshammy]

make your friends buy your skin the best 😂

[@Evelaraevia]

So... FOMO, False value, price anchoring, bundles, 'sales', left over money, inefficiency, flashy adverts, crossovers, convolution, gambling, and now peer pressure. This is every single tactic that I can think of that COD/Activision uses to beg for money. JFC

[@j.d.4697]

99% of Activision employees work on coming up with methods to rip you off.

[@mikenkc85]

“Activison sinks lower.” That’s an ever green breaking news story.

[@MorbidEel]

Next story "Activision has gone underground!"

[@maofria1452]

Soon activision will get lower enough for breaking in hell. They will feel in home

[@RookMeAmadeus]

Just waiting for news that Activision's buying a drilling company so they can dig even LOWER.

[@keit99]

​@@MorbidEelthey already were. Clearly they've dug themselves through the entire earth and Ended up on australia

[@sage_thunderleaf487]

Man, Call of Duty isn't even recognizable anymore. They've sacrificed so much creativity for the sake of money that it's almost depressing. I hope karma comes for Activision for their shitty business practices

[@cooldudeninja0219]

Pretty sure Karma did kick Activision in the balls at some point but it wasn't hard enough...

[@kayanpandazad4016]

oh it will, give them two more years and 3 more layoffs

[@Aval0n_]

I feel like the fact that they've managed to coast for this long just speaks to how incredible the work of the designers who got to actually focus on fun > profits was. I'm sure some people dgaf and whale for them, but I have a feeling a LARGE percentage of the rest of their playerbases are stuck in games/IPs they used to love. I can't imagine thaaaat many people voluntarily opt in to games that are built entirely around monetization like this.

[@pilsplease7561]

They peaked with world at war and the first modern warfare though black ops 1 was great then its downhill since

[@kukuhimanputraraharja8084]

call of doodoos hasn't been recognizable since forever

[@atomixfang]

Multiplayer games are no longer about skill or having fun. It is about who spends more money on them. I refuse to participate on this bullshit.

[@Dajova]

They want to be the american equivalent of the korean gaming playscape, as p2w and gacha are normalized there.

[@Asako_Gaming]

I have no issue with buying merch or skins for a game as long as the game is fun and doesn't intentionally waste my time. I buy skins for Rust for example, and on the marketboard you're getting things for less than a quid. I'll happily drop 20 extra noop on something if I know I'm getting a lot of good quality skins, but this paying 20 lids for a colour change is a joke.

[@Dystinction1]

It's not all multi-player games. Try some indie stuff like Lrthal Company

[@DeadPhoenix86DP]

I haven't touched a MP game for over a decade now, due the MTX and live service ****

[@WeskerUmbrella4]

I have completely detached myself from such gaming. I see no fucking purpose to be a sweaty "gameplay worker" in order to extract value out of my "battle passes". You can no longer even have fun, you literally have to log in every day (like you're going to work, saturdays and sundays included) and farm this shit, but you first have to pay for the privilege of having to earn it in the first place.

[@Tiberium10332]

Wasn't Microsoft supposed to magically fix Activision Blizzard? I haven't heard from these people for some time. I wonder if they still have hope.

[@Graavigala85]

Just like Destiny was supposed to be fixed after Bungie left activision

[@freeweights101]

​@@Graavigala85no excuses. Microsoft was supposed to make them better remember

[@TheHydraBlast]

​@Graavigala85 well that was never going to happen. For the original post I was hoping Microsoft would pull on the reins a little but I don't pay Activision games since ghosts or ww2

[@urazz7739]

That only if you expect Microsoft to actually get involved with these studios and fire the leaders of these studios responsible for this crap. Microsoft won't do that until it's too late pretty much. Look at 343 and Halo: Infinite. It would've been nice to see Microsoft learn their lesson and actually crack down on their studios from being stupid.

[@youtuvi7452]

Remember when we hoped they fixed Bethesda? Yeah... me neither

[@fearlesssaint9194]

I have never felt more vindicated in my decision to leave Activision games behind.

[@Archangelm127]

Amen.

[@CBRN-115]

I never touched them in the first place

[@598019001]

It truly is the decision that keeps paying off isn't it? It's like an investment, every annual quarter you get to point and laugh and realise how great of a decision it was to not touch their shit.

[@Doc-Glock]

5:35 "Unfortunately, not THAT Tracer." Give it time. Activision will probably find a way to shoehorn Tracer into a CoD game.

[@maofria1452]

For now, play with Lilith with assault rifle 🥴

[@mortalkombat266]

Microsoft's hands off approach working wonders

[@urazz7739]

Yeah, they really should be getting involved with the studios they get immediately when they get these studios, especially if they aren't in great shape. At this point, they should not be focused on making 'all' of the money and rebuilding the reputation of their studios.

[@psychopat4402]

@@urazz7739I’m pretty sure Microsoft is getting involved. This greediness is microsofts doing 😂. This was the whole point in acquiring abk to completely cash cow call of duty and the mobile market…..

[@DragonmasterKeel]

hands off? Do you seriously believe they are hands off?

[@jakubekch.3621]

I mean... It's Activision I doubt Microsoft had anything to do with it More likely they would've done it regardless of their buy out

[@psychopat4402]

@@jakubekch.3621 but I’m sure Microsoft encouraged them to continue. Bobby is out remember? Abk probably talked about being more consumer friendly and misft said nah keep doing what you’re doing it’s going perfectly. Quit acting as if Microsoft has absolutely nothing to do with things getting way worse suddenly 😂.

[@flamingcroatan3739]

We have gone from "HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSION OLD MAN!" To "Why should we even bother"

[@theunknown308]

The disconnect between consumer and companies are just shifting deeper and deeper. Executives really do not know how real life works at all

[@bruhshkebabs]

They’ve been drowning in money for so long that they don’t know what it’s like to not have money.

[@theotherLewbowski]

Anyone still playing COD in 2024 deserves everything they get

[@DenethorDurrandir]

Well said, Dude.

[@binlo9959]

It's so sad that this probably won't get better until it gets much much worse, largely because there's a sizeable chunk of consumers that defend this sort of stuff

[@vanessaheesen8154]

Microtransactions have proved to be a slip-in-slide directly to exploitation of a player base. I also remember when cosmetics in game were something you just got access to OR could eventually unlock just by playing the game. No limited times to trip your FOMO, no nickle-and-dime to chip away at what seems a reasonable price. At worst back then, it was just some time playing the game.

[@Sleeper1001]

As everything progressive.... more you pay, more they expect. The only winning move is to not play the game.

[@598019001]

Give an Inch, And modern Cooperate suits will try to take the fucking Province.

[@mattwo7]

And so it went, the slippery slope slid and the already flimsy defense of "it's just cosmetic" completely eroded.

[@Captain.AmericaV1]

F∆∆∆ Activision!!!

[@monocularfogey]

"Imagine you have four friends" - now now Bellular, be kind 😂

[@nolannice]

Watching this 10 years ago would seem like a bad satire

[@soundrogue4472]

Silly Activision, whales don't have friends!

[@TheKingRiku]

In other news the sun is bright.

[@ToshiSan121]

Breaking News this just in: Water is wet.

[@runforestrunfpv4354]

Aimbot providers are less exploitative than Activision.

[@vvitch-mist20]

People need to stop support this company....wtf kind of insanity is this.

[@e3vL1]

You'd think MS would turn things around. Instead it got worse.

[@vvitch-mist20]

@@e3vL1 Microsoft? I really hope you didn't actually think a corporation would care about it's customers.

[@aninverse]

Just when you think they can't be more insidious.

[@kezia8027]

if you thought that, then you aren't paying attention.

[@reedk2402]

I feel like the main issue is we are becoming more and more accepting of micro transactions. We need to come out against all even games like helldivers where we pretend it’s ok cause they are doing it the “right way” After all lots of these games did it the “right way” when they began. But we won’t. So company’s will still know if they weather the temporary anger people won’t care in a week or so and buy it.

[@VioletElite4]

This really reminds me of when they used to monetize maps behind map packs, so if your friends had the map packs and you didn't it, split the community up. This is just the dumber version because it's paywalling and splitting players based on progression boosting...

[@Elden_Lean]

I definitely contributed to this problem. The one redeeming factor that MW2 had going for it was DMZ, and I was absolutely part of the problem. I bought black cell battlepasses for just 1 skin and maybe 1 or 2 blueprints. I also bought a lot of bundles just for operator skins, my whole group did.but DMZ became infested with hackers as soon as the dlc called MW3 launched and I have since moved on. I guess I trolled myself?

[@indieemil]

Well, you seem to have learned a lesson from it, knowing what you got "scammed" on. Identifying the issue is a great start!

[@Khaleel85]

I’m starting to feel differently about things like, if there are idiots that’ll keep buying into the stupidity then go for it

[@InhalingWeasel]

There is an old saying in my country: As long as there is cattle, there will be butchers.

[@wardy4903]

The meta of video game dlc is to find a way to get players themselves to shame their friends for not also buying the dlc. Making it so your friend directly contributes to you not getting the bonuses you paid for because he didnt pay for them as well... That's a great way to do that.

[@Dark_Jaguar]

Buying a loot box or a "gacha pull" or whatever the kids are calling it now is gambling, and raising the price on each "pull" of that slot machine is milking a bad habit. Either sell the stuff outright, or, preferably, let us unlock this stuff by finding it in the single player campaign or beating specific challenges. That's the way god intended. I still think it's hilarious looking at Crash Team Racing's remake and seeing the STARK difference in unlocking the original unlockables by proving your skill in specific challenges, versus the new way that involves either spending a ridiculous amount of time grinding coins, or spending real money to buy the fake money to buy the characters. One's impressive and rewarding, the other's manipulative and hollow.

[@vbun4662]

We used to make the "skin diff" joke in games like League and Overwatch when your team had fancier skins than the other team. It was never supposed to be an idea pitch to these fools.

[@DLMyth2]

With these predatory micro transactions makes me think Bobby never left.

[@GrechStudios]

I appreciate your commitment to calling out scummy practices that slowly erode at the purity of fun games. And to those who simply say “just don’t buy it”, it’s almost like they are incapable of future pacing trends. I think there is some general bias from every young generation that since they see themselves as the future, they think their current version of the world is here to stay. But eventually they learn that their version of the world fades away to yet a new generation. And the things they thought were set in stone are now changed. Look to the past to prepare for the future.

[@Dark_Jaguar]

I got better value out of those "Hulk gloves" that lit up and said "Hulk smash!", or the "Thing gloves" that were the same thing, but said "It's clobberin' time!".

[@qlum]

The problem for activision with peer pressure skins is that it also backfires, it squeezes more money from the die hard player base, but also puts up a barrier to entry for the rest. Try convince a friend to play a game, if then you need to pressure that person to also buy a skin, it would be a much tougher sell. My guess is that this boosts short-term revenue and hurts in the long-term.

[@FenixFeniks]

We need countries to start passing legislation that make any transactions that will lead to gameplay modifying functions/features illeagal (ie paying directly or with premium currencies purchasable by cash)

[@NaoyaYami]

"You think you do, but you don't". Actually true in this case. What is needed is for people to stop giving Activision money. Any attempts at legislation will fail. Companies will find other way to screw over customers and/or game the system. Go play something else, stop supporting those corpos. P2W isn't even bad. You think any backlash about it would be even a tiny fraction as loud if it was all just honest "here's 10$ gun that has stats superior to any other gun"? It's the scummy ways monetization is implemented (and researched) that's the issue. (in ideal world we would also get ability to host private servers where we could disable p2w items, so skill-purists can enjoy the game as much as people with extra spendable income).

[@balazs787]

$90 to play a WoW expansion 3 days early. Buy awful looking skins for $16 and pressure your friends too, otherwise you're wasting time. Yeah, that Microsoft deal is really coming along. I'm never buying anything from them again.

[@e3vL1]

Yeah there's a trend with 3 days early lately. Cashing in on the streamer crowd I guess. normal consumers rather just wait till launch than pay extra

[@jimmyv3170]

The best part is when you either can't play the 3 day early access you paid for cause it's broken or it plays wonderfully until the launch update happens and then it becomes broken 😂

[@balazs787]

@@e3vL1 You'd normally be right, but this is not a singleplayer game. It's an MMO. The first week's launch hype where we all get along and explore a new world matters a whole lot more than the weeks and months that follow an expansion (or at least the same). It's a race, but you can pay to not have your legs cut off at the start, like everyone else. Doesn't feel good either way. They didn't have to do this by the way, retail player numbers are at a historical low, and the past expansion launches have already been very smooth.

[@K_FI_L_Y_P_S_O]

And yet the CoD sheep are still: If YoU DoNt LiKe iT, DoNt bUy iT." This is what happens when you don't speak up and blindly throw money at a company.

[@NeoBluereaper]

Didn't even talk about how Hearthstone tripled the requirement for weekly quests for the Tavern Pass which if you bought at the start of the expansion just happen to just go over the refund window period.

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

"Abusive Activision monetisation? Pah, what's new. Like it could possibly get worse." Ok, I was wrong.

[@SickPrid3]

"SNOOP DAWG" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@movingtarget12321]

Remember how kids were/are getting bullied for having basic skins in fortnite? Now they can also get bullied for not buying the exp boost skin in cod as well!

[@RobotMasterSplash]

If the "bullying" you received in school was just someone making fun of your video game skin, you had it GOOD in school.

[@SearNRivers]

I haven't bought a COD game in 13 years. Saw it going down hill all the way back then. Can't imagine how people are playing it today.

[@Michael-eb8nf]

Bravo! I've never seen someone take early 20 minutes to say, "Don't play this trash."

[@stevencurtis7157]

Activision's mask is firmly off and it's just phantom Bobby Kotick underneath.

[@callibor3119]

Gaming studios nowadays either want the gamers to focus on AI or don’t game at all. If the people don’t jump to AI there won’t be a WEB 3.0 for those that are just “casually gaming.” It’s like a new social hierarchy of some kind.

[@DJ-wl5qo]

“Money money money arghargharghargh!!!!!!!”

[@tejasshastha5457]

No matter how bad monetization gets, so long as cod players keep playing cod, activision is gonna keep pushing that depth.

[@Raika63]

Gross.

[@alaineninmah7040]

I just started reporting these companies to the FTC for predatory practices. Not that it's doing anything, but it makes me feel good.

[@gblenemy]

It doesn't need a Bobby for Activision to be greedy

[@darksage1012]

Activision being exploititive truly insane

[@m2hmghb]

Tarkov said hold my beer and watch this

[@SYL3NZR]

damn bro i never knew a fraction of their monetization this stuff is WILD

[@fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This seems a lot like the old facebook casual game MO of tying advancement, or at least grind reduction, to harassing your friends about the game in order to drive onboarding. Honestly a little surprising that shame restrained them this long.

[@lamikal2515]

Hey, it looks like Bobby was quite a convenient scapegoat.

[@sendneubs]

Halo Reach allowed you to unlock the extremly elusive Reach armor in Halo 3. This shit has been going on for a loooong time.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

How did go from games about jingoistic power fantasies to slot machines and 24/7 Halloween?

[@PupOrionSirius26]

The most optimal path is to leave the gambling site on mobile only, and using what you get in it to be used on the other platforms, so that non-mobile players of the game will be forced to go play the mobile game to get them.

[@RemyBeast]

Consumers that participate are the only ppl we can blame.

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

Ages ago, i went to a lazer tag event. I am a nerd. A nerd friend was having his stag, at a lazer tag place. So. I went. By the end of the evening, i learned one of the group was a "role player". Basically, a subscriber to the site. They kept his stats on their leaderboard, and he had orher perks. The one that caught my attention was he had an abbreviated downtime for his gun when he was tagged. He knew he had x seconds of immunity, so he'd scout out his opponents and he knew exactly where he could shoot them from on the complicated wooden maze. He was an eccellent shot, and used each advantage to the max. Why should modern games not be like real life? With "role players" in every game, making the game die, because it is not fair. I think obvious inequity will kill the game. I walked away from lazer tag because unless you paid extra you couldmt keep up. Any computer game is the same. The marketplace kills it with lack of funding. Or it doesn't. I can't see people paying anything for a game that makes them obviously inferior.

[@LaylaSpellwind]

"Make your friends buy this thing" Yeah... that's great Activision, because that's what my friends want, to be harassed by me to buy things... That's going to go down very well. Kinda like recruit a friend on WoW, it doesn't work because everyone already knows about WoW, people who know about it, play it and recruiting new people to play it is incredibly difficult. Most people just make their own account. I recall seeing similar on I think it was Netflix "Tell your friends about Netflix!" sorry... who the hell doesn't already know it exists? Most of all though, I just don't badger my friends about things. I don't tell them to buy things, I don't try and filch money out of them... Which is probably a big part of why I have friends. I haven't chased them all away.

[@bibby659]

The best way to end the grind, is to never start in the first place.

[@SidDTheSimschannel]

I lost interest in Activision after they lost their license for the Star Trek RPG series and cancelled one of the Star Trek games back in the 80 and 90.

[@Sanadis]

I can't wait until those exp bonuses expire in between seasons so you have to buy that seasonal exp boost every time.

[@grantonator3884]

Why did CoD abbreviate "CoD Points" ???

[@neonnlightt]

It's infuriating seeing this happen and people STILL PAY FOR IT. Like come on guys. They will stop doing this if it stops working it really isn't that hard of a problem to solve

[@custodyin]

Activision just solidified themselves into the "do not buy" pile with Ubisoft. If you want to make people hate gaming and themselves, this is the way to do it. What a depressing world...

[@Rikaishi]

Holy shit that Keep gacha. Acti have managed to out-gacha the Asian mobage markets. They're more predatory then a shovelware korean cashgrab. They've reached heights of greed and villainy that no-one thought possible until now.

[@bibby659]

Something tells me Activision Blizzard will be the core reason Microsoft suddenly slams the hammer down and starts cracking down on what their developer studios are doing. Obviously, Bobbies' corruption and influence have permeated the entire studio to the point that nothing short of the hammer coming down will stop it from spreading or getting worse.

[@598019001]

I'm just sitting over here playing factorio, and patting myself on the back for not buying "Triple AAA" Vomit

[@j.d.4697]

Activision almost makes me appreciate the slightly less garbage companies like Ubisoft or Bethesda.

[@BimbusBear]

i already bought this in dead by daylight when the best way to get bloodpoints was by buying leatherface for $5 who had a perk that let you get double bloodpoints every game

[@Unprotected1232]

So Activision looked at pyramid schemes and got inspired.

[@gregoryhorn]

I didnt know i needed this until you explained it buying asap

[@Tsukigato]

MLM cosmetics basically, what a wild and disgusting concept. lol

[@SpottedHares]

I’m pretty sure you could get a stock in the S&P 500 for this price at this point

[@Srrch]

I've never been a fan of chance or gambling when I spend my money. I want to know exactly what I'm spending my money on. I don't like loot boxes. I don't play a game to wonder what's going to happen. I play a game to escape from what's happening.

[@vyper695]

Imagine being a CoD enjoyer

[@warriorheart1112]

Ahh yes, the legally distinct pyramid scheme

[@benjones3466]

After leaving pvp multiplayer games behind for years, I find myself drawn back to just check on how horribly things have progressed every now and then. It's like some horror clown show. I hate it, but I just can't look away.

[@VaulDweller553]

Gonna wait for Grey Zone Warfare and give them my money instead

[@TrackMediaOnly]

You get what you pay for. In this meaning if you keep paying them for their actions, then they will keep trying to fleece you for even more money. And that is a fugly skin on top of it.

[@cronos12_psn]

With abk not being cash positive for Q3 but being over 50% of the gaming division's revenue... its no wonder theyre scrambling to make any money they can. Its going to take 20 years for MS to make back the 69B it paid for abk

[@skrrrtsusman3450]

i mean, they've already had pay to win op weapons before, weapons exclusive to lootboxes, and a patented gameplay adjustment thing to make excessive buyers get better matches.

[@Nolasco.]

That's a new low from Activision. That will be hard for kids with parents that don't have the economy or stupidity to buy them bundles. The pressure and being left out from a "friend" group is not good at all for the younger generation 😔

[@Nolasco.]

@@SimuLord true that bro 👍🏼

[@majones117]

Man, remember when video games were about fun? AAA doesnt mean shit anymore except for how much money they can make their shareholders.

[@Peramiiy]

Remember when ppl said Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard would "FIX" this company Oh boy.... were they wrong

[@Fonzo125]

Which game was it that basicly did the "the Keep" thing (looked exactly the same as this), but made it so that the epic and legendary item always dropped last? Was it cod mobile? Feels like something they would try.

[@FoliumSakura]

miss when call of duty was more grounded in more realistic aesthetics

[@xerothereaper4158]

You know what brighten my day? Knowing idiots are buying these as well the game thinking it’s the new GOTY. Note that CoD will only get the worst game of the year

[@libor2010]

Finally a TRUE endgame for real PAYERS.

[@GroggyGrognard]

I'm now fully sold on the idea that, if you as the developer cannot explain to me the net and gross benefits of the item you're asking me to buy in less than two sentences, you're just out to *%*$ me over for profit.

[@morgan3392]

Nawh bro, ya can't get me to give Activision any money, let alone cosmetics.

[@Kaysumi]

Actiblizz should really change their name to Captain Ahab Entertainment

[@schwarzflammenkaiser2347]

Leave it to Activision to make a gacha prize model that makes the ones from normal gachas look reasonable.

[@konradzukowski213]

Looks like that Golden Parachute for Bobby was way too expensive for the company

[@BlueWoWTaylan]

OH but I thought Microsoft buying them was gonna fix everything? ....SHOCKED, I tell you. I AM SHOCKED.

[@levelbasegaming5740]

So glad we gave up on CoD long ago. We dont buy their games so we dont need to worry about this. Simplae as that.

[@kosmakaluha]

I've never seen the screen of the CoD battlepass before but that Godzilla NES map looking nightmare is literally the worst battlepass and design of one I have ever seen in my life. What the hell have we come to?