With players in online games willing to pay for in-game items that will make them stand out from the pack in terms of visual customzation, it’s no wonder that Activision earns over $4 billion a year in microtransactions alone.
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There’s a new in-game purchase available for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and it’s both funny and amazing at the same time! Activision has rolled out a new batch of in-game items that players can purchase in the Black Market, and one of the things for sale is a dot for $1! Nope, I’m not joking. It’s a single dot that can be used as a reticle for the Reflex gun sight. Check out the screengrab of the “Open Dot”
You see that lone single dot on the left-hand side of the image? Yep, that’s the item for sale. It’s funny that Activision is even selling this dot, and it’s even more amazing that (we presume) some people are buying it!
It’s currently priced at 50 COD Points ($.50 cents) given there’s a limited 50 percent sale happening right now until the first day of 2019. Otherwise, it’s a flat 100 COD Points ($1) to acquire this dot.
Are you surprised at this or not at all? More importantly, do you think people will actually pay money for a single dot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
le sigh
Activision needs to die.
Germ_the_Nobody gg
Disgusting.
I know its messed up and all cus we have to hate on mtx and all that cus if we dont then we aren’t cool, but its $1 who tf cares, plus no one is forced to buy it so let’s move along now, we have far more important things to hate on
Black Ops 4 is actually one of the best Call of Duty titles of recent times… the multiplayer is excellent… don’t care about dots being sold…
Because community managers, streamers, and youtubers collecting those meal ticket industry favors work full time in discussion boards or their respective platforms defending and arguing with those who understand that this is purely price gouging – regardless if “transactions” are “micro” – at the expense of quality. Gamers keep thinking AAA companies learn their lessons when they go too far like with SWBF2, but then we end up going right back to where we were with their egregious price gouging.
I refuse to buy ANY game with microtransactions, regardless if they can be ignored or not because the inclusion of MTXs means a broken experience to make those MTXs more appealing – just as Monolith warned us right before removing their entire marketplace from SoW.
The only games that are great this gen are the ones 100% free of microtransactions; not one with them is as good as the best without them. Not AC:O, not RDRO, not BO4 – none.
Streaming has ruined gaming and idiots defend it because they benefit from the affiliation programs.It’s a vicious economic cycle designed to keep defenders of the faith happy lol.
“streaming has ruined gaming” mmhmm, prove it. Oh wait, you can’t, all you have is your own bigotry against streaming as a whole. GO away litlte baby.
I don’t support greedy publishers.
Your line I refuse to buy ANY game with microtransactions, regardless if they can be ignored or not because the inclusion of MTXs means a broken experience to make those MTXs more appealing is heavily contradictory.
If MT’s are ignorable in their entirety, then they did not make them more appealing via broken experience, because they are ignorable.
You’re acting like those who shit on Battlefield 4 because it has a “lootcrate” system. Only f**king morons bought the battlepacks, and only greater morons think they affected the gameplay. DLC locked items are more a concern imo since they’re usually cheaty.
I don’t buy from EA or Activision much any more. CoD IW and Destiny 1/2 turned me away from Activision for good, and EA/DICE’s pathetically childish behavior to the BF community turned me away from their products.
As someone like me who doesn’t mind MT’s given that they’re ignorable and the base game isn’t based on it, I usually turn my head to things like RDR2’s Gold system, which only caters to the “Now! Now!” mentality.
However, don’t turn my head to making players pay for things that should’ve been in the base game, or shitty marketing which makes them think it’s okay to put out DLC 3 weeks after a title’s launch.
I just stick with indies these days, most are pretty decent and don’t bullshit consumers.
I don’t play BO4 or CoD (and imo BF:BC2 is goat) but I can see how much a different dot sight pattern can make an aesthetic and gameplay difference. Should you have to pay for a simple dot sight change? I would argue for not, but ask me that question if that funding resulted in bringing BF:BC2 back? I’d pay it in a second. I have purchased basically all the DLC for most of the console Battlefield series up until BF1 by now. I dont think money was wasted earlier but the series doesn’t capture me anymore so now I don’t buy in. I moved on.
Honestly games are stupid expensive because an industry realizes that people will pay for them. There are a scant number of games that I have and will fanatically support monetary but there are way more games I’ve happily finished or still play without paying for ANY dlc or MTs. GTAO is a prime example for me. But MTs are for the ones who are diehards anyway. Getting crushed by some scrub whale in a oppressor is just part of the deal. I accept it, switch servers, have fun and game on.
Hell I’d pay if DICE went back to their old style of BF games. The new ones are terrible.
The difference between CoD and BF as far as MTs go, is that CoD feels like an f2p p2w kinda deal these days. BF STILL isn’t anywhere like it. You have some base content, but most of it you have to grind for to earn a single loot crate. The main issue I have is the lootcrate weapons, which breathe p2w. Battlefield doesn’t and most likely will never have it that rediculous.
One of my favorite quotes is “A good game is one you play and WANT to pay for, whereas a bad game is one that makes you pay to even keep playing it.”
The sad part of this whole thing isn’t that Activision is selling reticles. The sad part is that someone somewhere has purchased or will purchase these things. I don’t think it is too hyperbolic or alarmist to say that gaming is dying a slow death. Things will only get worst if gamers continue to cede their power to companies within an industry that increasingly value profits over the medium and its consumers…and they are.
Well I’ll never buy one. I could care less about reticles.
But some people are stupid and like to spend money on bullshit items
Which words could we use to describe the situation?
Disgusting… miserable. ..pitiful. ..awful….
These studios and shareholders would sell their mothers, fathers.. dogs… daughters. .sons….
… if that allowed them to make a few extra millions
And, as usual…. this industry started in…. the US
Yes, the US.
well before the microtransactions even exist, there were a public, that, in order to play their pew-pew game online, they were ready to pay extra money.
Yeah, wr all remember, the generation ‘xbox360’, with their hordes of fanboys, ready to defend their console of choice with their blood, with their body…
by that time, while ps3 gamers were enjoying free online gaming, xbox360 gamers/fanboys were being charged 70 bucks a year, JUST TO BE ABLE TO PLAY HALO and CALL OF DUTY online.
their excuse was ‘ohhhhhhh, we are paying 70 bucks a year, but our network and gaming experience is at least 5 trillion times better than on the ps3’
it all started here… with 20 to 30 million xbox360 fanboys, blindly defending their master MS, who was happily charging them money TO PLAY ONLINE
Nothing could be said, forums like n4g, etc, everything that was American, had 99% of people, including mods, ready to defend the x360. That’s why guys like the gaming journalist hiphopgamer, a ps3 enthusiast, got banned from n4g, because he ‘allegedly’ had said something ‘racist’ to a female mod… when the truth was. .. back in 2005-2010, if you were American, gamer, journalist, mod, YOU WERE SUPPOSED to support your national brand…. hiphopgamer loved the great ps3 exclusives, like god of war 3… he was like a stain… a black stain.
companies started following the situation: ‘humm, so, we have around 25-30 millions of 12-18yo kids, ready to SPEND MORE MONEY ? INTERESTING !’
And suddenly, we started having online passes. Hey, if people want to spend money., let’s charge money for online passes.
And suddenly, games started having day 1 dlcs. Again, if gamers are willing to spend billions extra, who are we, to not let them do it …
And suddenly, gamers were paying extra for a little weapon pack here… a little extra map there, little new character… and of course, people kept buying and buying…
And today, we have companies selling thousands of items, where a gun can have 200 different parts…
It’s just a matter of 1 year or 2, before they charge even more money for basic features.
Want to play with a friend ? Unlock the co-op mode, for 9.99
Want fixed framerate ? Buy the 30fps lock for 4.99
Want color filters, mutaters, like uncharted4 new game mode ? 6.99
Want ‘fast local country servers’ instead of global slow servers? 3.99
Want camera+ mode to create advanced clips ? 6.99
Want super slowmotion 4/8/16/32x for advanced video capture? 5.99
Want enable game mods install ? 3.99
Want enable 64 bots/training mode ? 4.99
Want 3dsound support ? 2.99
The day they have a million of lootboxes, microtransactions and in-game advertising working at 500%,and shareholders want an additional 1.5 billions,
They are going to sell gameplay mechanics, coops, filters, photorealistic packs, etc etc, etc.
WHY ?
BECAUSE the guys that were OK with paying 70 bucks for xboxlive and were ready to defend it with blood or their life,
ARE THE SAME ONES, TODAY, that will keep BUYING ALL THESE CRAPPY GAMES and will keep spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on in-game items, MT’s, lootboxes, etc.
People are so sadistic, that, despite the 49 scores on metacritics, despite the THOUSANDS of negative reviews, despite thousands of professionals, even fans, begging gamers ‘PLEASE, DONT BUY THIS GAME’, despite all that, there still are hundreds of thousands idiots, that , not only gave 60+ bucks to bethesda, but they EVEN ARE SPENDING HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS, ON FALLOUT76 MICROTRANSACTIONS !
How can the industry even change 1%, if gamers keep spending dozens of billions on MTs and LOXES ?
Please, stop paying money for this kind of crap
Activision and EA are generally the worst about micro-transactions from any game I’ve seen. Only Crytek, as a dev, nears the sheer rediculousness of these two. I play a wide range of F2P games and it’s easy to say that these two publishers are far worse with their aggressive micro-transactions than most shoddy (or not) f2p devs. Main difference? One doesn’t charge $70 at launch!
I refuse to buy games with MT’s in their core experience when they charge $60 to even play it. Most devs don’t even make you pay for the base experience in many a F2P unless it’s Crytek’s shit FPS or CCP’s DUST 514.
Activision and EA are generally the worst about micro-transactions from any game I’ve seen. Only Crytek, as a dev, nears the sheer rediculousness of these two. I play a wide range of F2P games and it’s easy to say that these two publishers are far worse with their aggressive micro-transactions than most shoddy (or not) f2p devs. Main difference? One doesn’t charge $70 at launch!
I refuse to buy games with MT’s in their core experience when they charge $60 to even play it. Most devs don’t even make you pay for the base experience in many a F2P unless it’s Crytek’s shit FPS or CCP’s DUST 514.
The sad thing is none of this would exist if people were not spending millions buying crap like this. I don’t particularly mind so long as the stuff is cosmetic. But yes paying for a reticle is stupid.
The sad thing is none of this would exist if game companies actually had morals rather than preying on the stupid and ignorant. Blame the villains, not the victims you worthless scumbag.
No one that buys this garbage is a victim. They know full well what they are buying. If people were not stupid and spending million or billions on this crap the companies wouldn’t do it.
Isn’t that one of the base dots that were normally available in game without purchase?