Call of Duty Will Have a Battle Pass Instead of Loot Boxes (bbc.com) 54
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.
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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If you read the description, you would already know. -1
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The description is clumsy. Explain it.
it's greed jim (Score:2)
if case you're truly unfamiliar with the difference.
Loot Boxes are one greedy system when you don't play the game to get rewards you play the game and you get a raffle ticket each ticket gives you a prize of usually bad quality possibly a prize you already have depending on how greedy the lootboxes are. You can also spend money on raffle tickets.
Battle pass is the greedy system where you get tier 1 prizes just for playing for 8 months and then if you pay much more you'll get access to possibly unlock tie
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I don't mind Activision getting money for a well-made product.
If you think artificially and deliberately gating everything behind paywalls isn't greedy, maybe you're the one having having trouble with the word.
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It's play to get, not pay to get. That ... really is the closest we're gonna get to optimal at the moment.
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From the summary it looks to me as if you buy the game, and then only with with an additional purchase of a seasonal battle pass are you able to unlock the "perks of playing". this smells like trading one payment for an annual upfront one to enable perks and the ability to unlock them.
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Its not random as the result for putting in time is well understood.
Play the game for hours and work towards an in game reward.
Not better (Score:2)
This is certainly better than loot boxes
I happily played a lot of Star Wars Battlefront II without ever buying a loot box even though it was supposedly "required".
In no way is having to pay even more for a full game, a better replacement than having an optional loot box system you can ignore.
Far better is the zero loot box, no battle pass system where you get the whole game for an up-front price - even if that price is high because of the work that has to go into it.
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You can sell account upgrades which is fine. Additional game zones (other maps, whole quest areas), extra storage, crafting bits and pieces (crafting you can balance grind with cost), extra characters with different interesting play styles ie grunts for free and pay for engineers. By far the best free to play game I have come across which balances out account upgrades paid for with real world money, versus grind and I hate paying rent, I refuse and always prefer to buy, LOTRO seems to be pretty well balance
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There was some game like Guild Wars with color-quality loot like green, blue, purple, except they had a lot more colors, and rainbow was the highest.
But the higher quality was locked. Within an hour of playing the higher quality items were dropping, just pay us money and you can put them on.
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I happily played a lot of Star Wars Battlefront II without ever buying a loot box even though it was supposedly "required".
EA was in panic mode when that happened. You were getting access to stuff they clearly had no intention of giving you in time frames that were just unreasonable as opposed to insane. The supposition was that they had made certain unbreakable promises to Disney about how the franchise would be handled and those darn customers just weren't on message.
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I happily played a lot of Star Wars Battlefront II without ever buying a loot box even though it was supposedly "required".
If you had ever played Star Wars Battlefront II you would know that you never had the opportunity to buy a loot box. They disabled the ability to purchase loot boxes before launch.
Note to pedants: yes, technically they were live for two days or something for people with early access.
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Military wants yip yip vanity doggies and pimp hats?
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Pretty sure I misread this part
" 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."
Thank you for the correction.
A what? (Score:1)
What the hell is a "battle pass"?
Re: A what? (Score:1)
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In this case they're saying you won't pay for it
Nowhere did they say this. Stop making shit up. Its only in your head.
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You said nothing other than quote the confusing OP. Good job!
It seems like a normal unlock progress quest system, but maybe you can p2w to get there faster?
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So they invented experience points. And are selling them.
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It's DLC you pre pay for (Score:3)
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What is... (Score:2)
...a loot box or a battle pass? I'm old.
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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
A loot box is game content you buy (Score:2)
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
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Oh yeah...like FIFA gold packs or whatever. Thanks.
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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.
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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.
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Loot boxes are just the digital form of trading card game booster packs.
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...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)
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
Simultaneous players? (Score:2)
So now (Score:3)
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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.
Re: So now (Score:1)
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.
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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.
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Now, if the content in the battle pass is mand
I approve the Pass system (Score:2)
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
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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
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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.
Right (Score:2)
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.
This doesn't answer the real question (Score:2)
Will the key you press to kowtow to China be configurable?