The introduction of microtransactions, the COD Points, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was not unexpected, but the implementation is now driving numerous fans to the barricades. What is the problem with the COD Points?
For most, it was only a matter of time, now it is official: microtransactions have officially entered Black Ops 4 in the form of Call of Duty Points (COD Points).
Currently, the real money currency is only live on PS4. The Xbox One and PC will join a week later on November 7.
The Call of Duty Points in Black Ops 4 – What You Need to Know
What are COD Points? They are a special in-game currency that can only be purchased with real money in the game’s shop.
The cost of COD Points: Several packages of COD Points are offered. Prices range from €1.99 for 200 points to €99.99 for 13,000 COD Points.
So, 100 points cost about €1 with discounts for larger quantities.
Depending on the edition of Black Ops 4, players receive a certain number of points for free at the start. Owners of the Black Ops Pass also receive an additional 1,000 COD Points.
What can you do with Call of Duty Points?
They can be used to purchase specific content in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
- Items for the Zombie mode: For example, you can buy Nebulium Plasma for the Zombie mode. This ingredient is needed to create buffs in the form of elixirs and can also be earned in-game.
- Additional content for the Black Market: You can also buy so-called special orders with COD Points. These include new streams for the Black Market with new cosmetics.
This is the Black Market: The Black Market in Black Ops 4 is an in-game shop where cosmetic content is unlocked through gameplay progress in multiplayer or in Blackout.
The streams consist of individual cosmetic content packages that have a specific theme or revolve around a particular motto. They are available for a limited time within the Black Market and regularly provide Black Ops 4 with new content.
Progress in the Black Market: On the Black Market, fans can work their way up through numerous tiers via in-game progress. For example, the Smuggler’s Goods stream offers 200 tiers that can be unlocked gradually. Afterward, more tiers come on top – there seems to be no end.
Each tier (in the Smuggler’s Goods stream) offers a purely cosmetic reward.
From various outfit sets that you can mix with each other, to calling cards to signature weapons and loot boxes, there is pretty much everything you can find among cosmetic items.
This is the problem: With the Call-of-Duty Points, it is now possible to buy progress on the Black Market and thus save a lot of time and grind.
You pay 100 COD Points per tier. While you can purchase any tier directly at will, you must still buy all preceding missing tiers.
So, for example, if you’re at tier 20 and want the reward from tier 200, you will have to pay for 180 tiers. A jump from tier 1 to 200 will cost you €200.
That’s why the microtransactions are driving fans to the barricades
Fans are disappointed with the implementation of microtransactions: It is not even the return of microtransactions itself that is upsetting fans. Because that they would come into the game in some form was clear to almost everyone.
It is much more the implementation and integration into the Black Market that many players are complaining about.
This is what fans criticize the most: The main criticism point is the slow tier advancements on the Black Market. Progress is not tied to players’ individual performance but rather to pure playtime. The effort involved is enormous.
Although the developers have already made adjustments, the time required for a tier advancement is still considered by many fans to be disproportionately high even after the adjustment.
For most players, it will not be possible to reach tier 200 within the limited availability of the Smuggler’s Goods stream. Because, according to current calculations by fans, hundreds of hours of pure playtime are still needed if one wants to unlock everything without additional costs. Currently, more than 250 hours are required for tier 200.
Players complain that the slow progress and the time factor effectively pressure them into resorting to microtransactions. Although all the content is cosmetic in nature, meaning players won’t miss any essential content, the cosmetics also represent the biggest incentive for further progress and constitute a large part of character customization.
Some of the best items are currently available only at the later tiers. Fans now fear that Treyarch could hide new weapons and the best cosmetic content behind the higher tiers of upcoming streams with this new aggressive monetization model to push microtransactions. Additionally, many find such a model inappropriate in a full-price title.
