Last week, players noticed something gross and annoying in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone. Following a big update for the new season, many angry players spotted ads for bundles and battle passes in never-before-seen places, like inside the loadout menu. Activision now says this was all just a big whoopsie and has removed the ads.
On May 29, Call of Duty news and rumors outlet CharlieIntel reported that players were encountering more ads in Black Ops 6 and Warzone following Call of Duty’s big season 4 update. The annoying and obtrusive ads were popping up in the loadout and the class creation menus, as well as in the events section of each game’s menus. The loadout menu in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone is likely the place in which players spend the most time when not actually shooting people in-game. And to suddenly see cosmetic and season pass ads shoved in here angered many. It seems the backlash was so intense that Activision stepped in to remove them all.
On June 2, the official Call of Duty “updates” account run by Activision tweeted out a short message addressing the annoying ads, explaining that they were added to the games “in error.”
“A UI feature test that surfaced select store content in the Loadout menus was published in the Season 04 update in error. This feature has now been removed from the live game,” said Activision.
Of course, many players didn’t buy this explanation, with some suggesting that Activision quietly added it in to see what the reaction would be, and when players went nuclear, backed off. Even if you take Activision’s word that it was mistakenly added, the fact that it was even testing the idea of adding more advertisements into more parts of Call of Duty means it was clearly being considered. And that’s concerning.
This is a franchise with some of the worst, most ad-riddled and ugly menus in all of modern video games. To shove even more ads into the few areas of CoD that are still useful and useable is gross, especially when you remember that Activision still charges $60+ for new Call of Duty games and sells an endless list of in-game cosmetics every day. Did the company really need to test out more ways to squeeze in ads? I don’t think so, and based on how players reacted, I’m sure Activision will be careful about adding more advertisements in the near future.
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