The Three Eras of CoD

(Call of Duty Black Ops Cover Art. Property of Activision)

If you look at top-selling videogame charts each year, you will 100% see Call of Duty in the 1st place, or sometime in the top 5. It is a general consensus that the series is massively popular and always has a large audience similar to big blockbusters like Marvel’s superhero movies. The fact that CoD is a yearly-released series also makes it a good example of how the gaming industry continues to evolve, whether for the better or worse.

I have divided CoD into 3 eras, Map Pack, Supply Drop, and Battlepass Eras are named according to the most prevalent monetization system in each installment. I will examine these systems, pointing out the good and bad points.

(CoD Modern Warfare Variety Map Pack. Property of Activision)

Map Pack: CoD 4 (2007) - CoD Black Ops 4 (2018)

This is the worst way to split the community. You either buy and get the shiny new maps, or you don’t and get left behind playing the same old boring maps you have explored in and out for 100 hours already.

The problem is when people are not buying the map packs, those who bought can’t find people to play with because the player base is so low. The good thing is that the game has no other microtransactions to bother you. Despite those complaints, this was the time when $60 games felt like complete packages. You can grind everything in the game for free. You don’t need to play the new maps. What you paid for is the definitive product, with no limited-time bundles to look out for or complain about. This was also the era of my favorite CoD ever, Black Ops 1. So maybe I’m biased and clouded by nostalgia. But it was a very fun time grinding for golden guns, achieving prestiges, and unlocking things by using in-game credits.

(Supply Drop Promotion by Twitch.tv)

Supply Drop: CoD Advance Warfare (2014) - CoD Black Ops 4 (2018)

Advance Warfare introduced Supply Drop, a randomized treasure chest system already proven successful in FIFA titles and Gacha mobile games. If you want shiny skins for guns or your soldier, you must either grind or pay for the random chance of getting what you want. The good side is that you would technically get everything for free if you can grind hard enough. The bad are the things you get “for free” might not be the thing you want. Charms must be unlocked for each weapon, which means there are duplicate charms for every weapon in the game. How long can you endure the grind if you keep getting low-tier items? Eventually, you would be tempted into spending for a CHANCE. In the end, you might end up spending over $100+ and never gonna get what you want.

The massive booming popularity of Overwatch made other games follow suit. 2016’s Infinite Warfare until 2018’s Black Ops 4 still uses Supply Drop, Map Packs, and also a battle pass. The games have 3 monetization methods. If Supply Drop was the only one system, I might have had an easier time justifying its existence. But it seemed Activision wanted to have all the $$$. Black Ops 4 acted like a transitional phase towards a new monetization system.

Up until 2019’s Modern Warfare, the Battle Pass became the new norm for most multiplayer games thanks to the success of Fortnite. Everything is free, except for the $10 (9.99) Battle Pass. I think this is the point where it is becoming the most consumer-friendly. New maps are free, no more splitting the player base. Everyone gets the same experience, except for the premium weapon and operator skins. Store bundles are debatable whether they are reasonably priced or not. But for me, spending $10 or $20 for some nice skins while you can play the game completely free (Warzone) is justifiable. Can those prices be lower? Sure. Vote with your wallet. Give feedback. It can’t get worse than the Supply Drop days.

There’s always a BUT. The era of Battle Pass also sparks the era of Live Service model. Games come out unfinished, but with a promise of updates along the way. The mentality of “you can’t complain about free things” starts to rise inside the community. People become less critical of what is offered, deceived by the promise of future patches. Even premium $20 bundles don’t operate as intended to the point of false advertisements is a grim sight (gun skins don’t glow as in previews or tracer packs don’t work). The pro players aren’t happy with glitches that make specific skins become invisible either. These issues make the company seems greedy, wanting to sell microtransaction even when the core game doesn’t work as intended.

It’s clear that Activision wants all CoD to be connected with shared progressions by using Warzone as the platform, starting with Modern Warfare (2019). You can say that Warzone is the central hub of modern CoD and will continue to be supported for many years into the future, as long as people keep buying $20 anime bundles. I predict this is a sign of Activision wanting to branch out into the free-to-play market, but still want the same CoD sale profit each year.

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) might be the upcoming trend. Basically, you buy one a unique virtual item and YOU OWN IT. In the gaming context, you buy one item and you can use it in whatever game you play or sell it freely. With Warzone, it’s not hard to imagine NFT guns or skins that can be universally used in future CoD titles. Yet NFTs are controversial for how overpriced they are and companies like Ubisoft got backlashed so hard for the audacity to sell them in premium $60 games (Ghost Recon: Breakpoint), I don’t expect Activision to implement it anytime soon while they are still criticized for sexual allegations within the company.

Investors want profits. Companies want sales. That’s how things are. But it is undeniable that the CoD series itself is a relic of a bygone era trying to adapt to a new landscape. Not many franchises survive to this day while hitting jackpots yearly without reinventing themselves. I don’t think people are resistant to changes. Right now Warzone has been very free-to-play friendly, despite some criticism about overpricing bundles. I don’t think money is the problem either. $20 anime bundles aren’t problems. It will only be a problem when people aren’t satisfied with their purchases or feel like they’re getting ripped off with anti-consumer practices and subpar products that don’t work.