A YouTuber calculated how much you need to spend to acquire all items from the black market, meaning the in-game shop of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, that have been available for purchase until the current Operation Apocalypse Z. The total might surprise many.
What this test is about: The pricing policy of Black Ops 4 has been controversial for quite some time. Recently, the well-known YouTuber eColiEspresso made it his mission to draw players’ attention once again to what the black market and microtransactions have made out of the full-price title Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
With a video project, he demonstrated how much it actually costs if you want to have all directly purchasable content in Black Ops 4.
Here are the terms: In his video, he focused on how much you need to spend if you want to have everything from the shop. He assumes in his calculations that you buy the base game for about 60€ and then all the items and bundles available for direct purchase from all operations (i.e., seasons) on the black market of Black Ops 4.
No purchases of tiers (i.e., levels), reserves, or items from the ongoing season “Operation: Apocalypse X” were taken into account – otherwise, the potential costs would have been even higher.
This is the result: If you want to have all corresponding items in your collection, it will get quite expensive. So far, the total cost is almost $1,328 in “Call of Duty” points – the real currency in Black Ops 4. This currently translates to slightly more than 1,180 €. With this money that one would have to invest in microtransactions, you could easily buy around 17 full-price AAA titles for consoles – even more for PC.
What do the fans say? Although the discussion around the pricing policy and microtransactions in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has never really subsided, it has recently flared up again on Reddit due to this announcement.
Hardly anyone justifies this practice, but many fans point out that these optional microtransactions are purely cosmetic and do not offer in-game advantages. Therefore, they do not understand the renewed outrage.
However, many others note that hardly any free-to-play title operates such an aggressive microtransaction model, let alone full-price games with an additional paid season pass. This calculation and the video serve as further proof that Activision’s greed and audacity are hard to surpass.
Some fans fear that this model may also be applied to the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and that Black Ops 4 may just be a preview of what fans can expect in the next installment of the series this fall.
They also point out that all these cosmetics, which one might have purchased for a high price in Black Ops 4, could soon become obsolete with the next Call of Duty and fade into obscurity. Because nothing will be carried over. Therefore, they are deliberately urging the community to refrain from buying “Call of Duty” points and to boycott this pricing policy.
What do you think about the extent of microtransactions in Black Ops 4? Outrageous rip-off? Or merely optional content that is being viewed too critically? And how do you think MTX will continue in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?
