Call of Dutyhas been in an interesting situation lately. While Season 3 has brought goodDMZ changes forWarzone 2and some much-needed 6v6 maps toModern Warfare 2, many players have honed on one problematic part of the Season: monetization. Both the BlackCell battle pass and pay-to-win bundles have dominated conversation, andCall of DutyZombies fans could have good reason to be worried.
While the situation regardingCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s BlackCell battle passis a bit more nuanced and features a proper debate since other games have premium battle pass options, basically the entire community has come down hard on the idea of pay-to-win bundles. Thus far, the bundles seem to only give an advantage in DMZ, which is a fairly casual mode that allows players to spawn in with strong gear anyway. However, a slippery slope is a very valid fear, asCall of Duty’s most iconic co-op mode could be next in line for pay-to-win content.
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Why Call of Duty Zombies Fans Need to Be Worried
The most dangerous thing aboutCall of DutyZombies that sets it up to be monetized in a problematic way is that it is a PvE mode and is not competitive in the traditional sense. Because of this, adding in small boosts for paying customers would likely be viewed as acceptable to Activision just like withDMZ’s early match UAV. Since players are not getting an item that makes the match harder for other players, it could seem like less of an issue on paper. On top of this, with Zombies maps now releasing as free content drops and not being monetized, Activision could struggle to justify adding content for it that is expensive to develop. Special advantages tied to skins might just be a way to get more money out of Zombies fans.
The most obvious route to take is to give players who wear certain skins an advantage, just like with the bundle forCall of Duty: Warzone 2’s DMZ mode. For instance, if someone dresses asSamantha Maxis, perhaps they will spawn with a fully upgraded weapon or some of the perks already acquired. A medic skin could come with a self revive for every Zombies match, while a heavily armored character could have a Death Machine ready to go.
Upgrades like those above might not be game-breaking, but they would certainly be frustrating, and the list of possibilities only gets longer. Any of theGobblegumsand Elixirs fromBlack Ops 3andBlack Ops 4could be used in this fashion, with those who buy an expensive enough bundle possibly starting every game with a ton of points, salvage, or even a Wonder Weapon like the Ray Gun. The worst case scenario would be making the Gobblegum effect from Round Robbin' a paid skin bonus, as it would allow players to instantly finish a round at any point.
The issue with all the options listed above is that they would ruin the progression of aCall of DutyZombies match, which has always been one of the very best things about its round-based gameplay. InCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold WarZombies, players had to do every main quest for a permanently stronger starting weapon, so the idea of buying access to that form of unlock is concerning. Further, speedruns and high round leaderboards would be heavily damaged by a system like this, as any sense of fair competition could be taken away by a pay-to-win Operator or weapon blueprint.
Call of DutyZombies struggling with community outrage would be nothing new if pay-to-win bundles were to come to the mode, as fans have been critical of Zombies for years now - withVanguardZombies in particularly being a low point. Still, much like how fan complaints pushed Treyarch to do away with the new objective style and return to a round-based format, the same could happen before this becomes a problem. Hopefully, Activision will notice how upset players are over the pay-to-win DMZ content and avoid putting anything like it in Treyarch’s next game, which desperately needs to be a success afterCall of DutyZombies’ recent struggles.
