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The Almighty Buck Games Entertainment

Call of Duty Will Have a Battle Pass Instead of Loot Boxes (bbc.com) 54

Posted by BeauHD from the hated-microtransactions dept.
Activision and Infinity Ward are doubling down on their commitment to not have loot boxes in the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with the announcement that it will instead feature a battle pass. The new system is almost identical to other battle pass systems found in games like Fortnite. IGN reports: In a newly published blog post, Activision announced that is "introducing a new Battle Pass system, not a loot box system," to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The news comes after Infinity Ward announced the studio is not developing a loot box system for Modern Warfare despite rumors and leaks suggesting otherwise. A battle pass is a system where players can earn rewards by playing the game and completing in-game objectives. The more objectives players complete, the further they progress through the Battle Pass and the more rewards they unlock.

Unlike a loot box, a battle pass usually shows what rewards players are on track to unlock, and this will be the case for Modern Warfare's battle pass as well. "The new Battle Pass system will allow players to see the content that they are earning or buying," Activision writes. "Battle Passes will launch timed to new, post-launch live seasons, so you can unlock cool new Modern Warfare-themed content that matches each season." Activision also says that "functional content" that impact gameplay and game balance, like base weapons and attachments, will be unlocked simply by progressing through the game and not a battle pass. "There will be both a Free Stream and a Premium Stream of content in the Battle Pass System in Modern Warfare," says Activision. "New base weapons will be earned through gameplay, simply by playing Modern Warfare. Functional attachments for base weapons can be unlocked through gameplay as well just like in the game's Beta." Instead, the battle pass and in-game store will feature cosmetics that "does not impact game balance."

The battle pass is expected to arrive later this year.
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Call of Duty Will Have a Battle Pass Instead of Loot Boxes More

Call of Duty Will Have a Battle Pass Instead of Loot Boxes

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  • What the hell is a "battle pass"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      An expected reward for playing the game a lot and collecting "something" each game?
    • You pay $X dollars and get Y content, with the catch being you usually don't know what Y is exactly. It's essentially a video game subscription for content delivered over a set period of time. Sort of like the video game equivalent of HBO.
    • basically a fancy way to say paid subscription on top of your game cost to earn items in game via achievements.
    • as you level up in the game you unlock prizes. But with a battle pass system there are two tiers. Free players unlike tier 1 prizes, Battlepass playres unlock tier 1 prizes AND tier 2 prizes. Sometimes tier 1 prizes are only ever 5 levels and tier 2 prizes are every level depending on the game. They cost $20-50 dollars every "season" which may be 8-10 months.

  • ...a loot box or a battle pass? I'm old.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      A loot box is a gambling system where you pay a small fee for an unspecified/randomized number of digital rewards

      A battle pass is a gambling system where you pay a large fee for an unspecified/randomized number of digital rewards

    • where instead of buying the content outright you purchase a random chance to obtain some content. Usually something small like a new gun, a cosmetic effect like a skin that changes your character's in game appearance, etc.

      If you can stand his abrasive style the YouTuber Jim Sterling [youtube.com] has several good articles on Loot Boxes (sometimes called "Gatcha" Mechanics when talking about Japanese games after a brand of toy and collectable vending machines popular in Japan).

      They're often very predatory. They

    • Loot boxes you had to purchase using real money keys to unlock "treasure chests" of random junk, some of which were valuable on in-game auction houses, some of which may be a rare item you actually wanted.

      As such it was mathematically identical to gambling.

      • Technically, you could spend hours grinding in games to earn in-game currency to purchase those loot boxes. But it was designed to be mathematically unreasonable to do it that way.

      • Loot boxes are just the digital form of trading card game booster packs.

    • ...a loot box or a battle pass? I'm old.

      loot boxes are an import from phone games. (Remember when the gaming press was alla bout how phone games would replace consoles. haha)

      Anyway Loot boxes are a feature in the game where you get unlocks by raffle. You level up you earn a lootbox. you play particularly well and get first place, you get a loot box. When you open a lootbox you get game rewards, typically weapons, gear, etc but atypically "just cosmetics" like costumes or color palettes. Now the trick of loot boxes is that they're a nightmare to

  • For those looking for definitions (Score:5, Informative)

    by bug_hunter ( 32923 ) on Thursday October 17, 2019 @10:05PM (#59321132)

    It's somewhat covered in the article summary but:

    Loot boxes : you earn in game (or pay with real life $) and you get something like 5 random items in game. You might have really wanted one of those items you get randomly assigned, you might have not wanted any of them and end up buying 10 more loot boxes hoping you randomly get what you were after.

    Battle passes : games that have these normally declare seasons. If you buy a battle pass (with real life $) then during the corresponding season you will unlock items for playing (typically winning will unlock items faster than losing). The items contained in a battle pass are generally declared up front so there is no random element. However if you buy a battle pass then don't play much during that season, if there are items you haven't unlocked you wont get them.

    Short version
    Loot boxes - money for random stuff
    Battle passes - money and game time for non-random stuff

  • Does anyone know how many max players are permitted in TDM? Can't seem to find that info anywhere. I've been waiting for a modern COD that lives up to COD4's 32 and 64 player matches.

  • So now (Score:3)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Thursday October 17, 2019 @11:01PM (#59321212)
    Then you just hide most of the "achievements" behind a paid DLC wall and voilá. No loot box but the suckers still have to pay.

    • At least that is an honest traditional purchase. Get x for y dollars. No randomness or grinding required.

      Go pay $20 to Blizzard and get a cool flying pig mount for Warcraft.

      Well, not at the moment don't give them money. They are not standing up for a Hong Kong protester of their own.

      • Well, not at the moment don't give them money. They are not standing up for a Hong Kong protester of their own.

        Being fair there are two kind of companies doing business in China: those who bow and those who havenâ(TM)t done anything disapprove but its government so, your message should be more like âoedonâ(TM)t give your money to companies who do business in achinaâ because if they donâ(TM)t bow itâ(TM)s because nobody has asked them... yet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fenrif ( 991024 )

      Activision have lied about loot boxes being in COD games before. I have no idea why everyone is taking this new lie at face value.

      It will have loot boxes, they'll patch them in a month after launch. And there will be weapons locked behind loot boxes. As there have been in the past 5 or so COD games, despite Activision explicitly saying that wouldn't happen every time before launch.

      At this point if you believe a video game AAA publisher you are a schmuck and deserve to be conned out of your hard earned cash.

    • They only have to pay if the content offered is mandatory if you want to stay competitive. Otherwise, it's just extra optional content. I don't mind the battle pass system too much in particular; I don't care about Call of Duty, but if I saw it in another game I actually cared about, I'd probably buy into it if it was reasonably priced. It's certainly better than lootbox gambling BS that you see in a lot of games now, at least you know what you're paying for.

      Now, if the content in the battle pass is mand

  • Gambling should never be involved in mainstream gaming; unless it's within the game itself, with game currency that you cannot purchase with real money. That said, game companies need ways to monetize. I think Game Passes are a great idea! In League of Legends; They provide extra scope to the game in the form of quests (it's really just playing the game, but it adds depth) without giving an unfair advantage. It allows you to accumulate tokens to be redeemed towards exclusive skins and the like.

    Game companie

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      I agree that game companies need ways to monetize. That why Call of Duty is not free to play - you get to purchase game first.

      • I agree that game companies need ways to monetize. That why Call of Duty is not free to play - you get to purchase game first.

        game companies do NOT need ways to monetize. They're making money hand over first. If they stop trying to reach for asinine and insane profit margins they could make better games. they could cut out ALL this insane monetization the loot boxes, the battle passes, the season passes, the 8 different editions designed to confuse you into buying a version too high than your wants or even worst multiple versions just to get exclusive content they will sell later. They could stop all of it and still be fine as com

      • If multiplayer is so valuable now, they might as well just get ALL players onboard with a cheap monthly subscription to unlock multiplayer. Instead of relying on some victim whales to fund "free" multiplayer servers.

  • And a month after launch they're going to be super excited to announce the addition of loot boxes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Treasure Crates on top of the Battle Pass system.

  • Will the key you press to kowtow to China be configurable?

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