We here at The Outerhaven are incredibly excited about the upcoming Modern Warfare, having loved the Gunfight 2v2 Alpha and the Multiplayer Beta, but like with all Call of Duty titles, we’ve been a bit worried about how Activision is planning on supporting the game post-launch. Thankfully, an Activision blog post went up earlier today, and we’re really liking what we’re seeing.
For those of you who don’t know, Modern Warfare is the first Call of Duty to fully embrace cross-play. In order to keep all players on every platform up to date with the latest content, Activision has completely omitted a traditional season pass this year, making all post-launch maps and updates free for everyone, with all content being available on every platform at the same time (unless you want to play Survival). Seeing how past Call of Duty games like Black Ops 4 and Modern Warfare Remastered were plagued by excessive monetization through loot boxes and supply drops, players were worried that the removal of the season pass meant Activision would double down on more predatory monetization strategies.
It turns out these worries were all for nothing, because Modern Warfare will not have loot boxes or supply drops in any form according to the blog post. Instead, the game will employ a battle pass system that will reward players with weapons and attachments. “All functional content that has an impact on game balance, such as base weapons and attachments, can be unlocked simply by playing the game,” states the blog post. New battle passes will coincide with post-launch seasons, meaning there will be time-sensitive content available just like any other game with a battle pass.
Of course, Modern Warfare‘s battle pass will have both a free and a premium path, but players will be able to earn COD Points simply by playing Modern Warfare. Whether or not they’ll be able to earn enough COD Points to get the premium battle pass remains to be seen, but the currency is earnable in-game nonetheless. An in-game store will feature various cosmetic items that can be purchased outright, and the battle pass will have cosmetics as well if you’re not looking to spend anything extra. The battle pass will be coming to Modern Warfare sometime after launch, although Activision didn’t give an exact timeframe.
As always, it’s good to take these kinds of messages with a grain of salt. We were promised great things with Black Ops 4‘s monetization prior to launch last year, and now that game has been practically ruined by its loot boxes and battle passes. Also, adding things like loot boxes, supply drops, and battle passes post-launch is a tactic some games use to get those things omitted from reviews, but we’ll be sure to mention the battle pass in our review of Modern Warfare. If everything in the blog post turns out to be true, then it looks like we’ve got a great Call of Duty on our hands this year. If not, well, it looks like we’ve got another Call of Duty this year.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare releases on October 25 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will feature cross-play and cross-progression across all three platforms.
