In Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Treyarch introduced microtransactions after the launch. The YouTuber Skill Up subsequently deleted his review. His reasoning: He cannot recommend the game.
The YouTuber Skill Up explained in a new video why he deleted his “positive” review of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
This is what Skill Up said earlier about Call of Duty Black Ops 4: A few months ago, Skill Up tested the new Call of Duty. He loved this game, he says in retrospect.
After years without meaningful changes in CoD, Black Ops 4 felt refreshingly new.
Skill Up particularly praised:
- a revised time-to-kill
- an almost perfect map and class design
- precise gunplay, just as expected from Call of Duty
Even critics begrudgingly admitted that this is a good Call of Duty.
Skill Up was satisfied with his review, he says. He was really happy for the developers at Treyarch that they put so much work into Black Ops 4 and that it paid off.
After his review, dedicated game developers contacted him and told him they had tears in their eyes seeing that their work had paid off in his eyes.
It’s like they charge you for a napkin in a restaurant
This is what Skill Up says now: According to Skill Up, the Black Ops 4 he reviewed no longer exists.
Due to the microtransactions and the grinding introduced after the release, this is now a different game. And one that he can no longer recommend.
He has nothing against microtransactions in general and expected them. In the specific case of Black Ops 4, however, they are simply too “greedy.” After all, it takes 200 to 300 hours to unlock the contents of a battle pass.
Besides the base game at full price and a paid season pass, introducing microtransactions is going too far for Skill Up.
The last straw was the “single red dot” that was sold for $1. He was so disgusted by it that he just deleted his review video. It was like a restaurant charging you for a straw or a napkin.
Changed release process is the problem
This is the problem: According to Skill Up, publishers have become clever: They know that testers will rate microtransactions negatively. Therefore, they introduce them only after the testing process is complete. He calls publishers “sneaky.”
They come out only after the “end of the review cycle” with microtransactions to avoid negative criticism for them. If the Metacritic score is already high, publishers introduce microtransactions to milk the customers.
The only option that Skill Up sees to respond to this policy is to delete his video.
This is how players react: Skill Up receives a lot of praise for his decision under the video and on reddit. Many players share the criticism. Black Ops 4 is indeed a great game, but the microtransactions are heavily criticized.
Recently, we reported on Skill Up regarding his criticism of Fallout 76:
