Remember how EA's overuse of loot boxes in Star Wars Battlefront II resulted in so much fan backlash that they got a Guinness World Record for their trouble? Well, Activision must have decided that they want in on that sense of pride and accomplishment, as fans playing the Beta of the upcoming Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare have discovered what appears to be plans to implement loot boxes into the game.
Youtuber NerosCinema checked the 'after-action report' menu while playing the beta, and saw a menu item labeled 'Unlocked: Lootbox Common Supply Drop' in the lower left corner.
There has been a lot of negative reaction to this finding, but at the same time, nobody seems particularly surprised. The last two Call of Duty games -- Call of Duty: World War II and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 -- featured these controversial supply drops, which showed up on the battlefield and required players to spend their real-world money to find out what's inside. The fact that the supply drop that Nero unlocked is labeled 'common' implies that Activision will be upping their loot box game by offering more than one type of paid unlock to entice players to open their wallets.
Activision has been nickeling and diming players for a while now, and unless the backlash ends up hurting their bottom line, they'll continue to do so.
Unfortunately for Activision, the sales of their flagship Call of Duty franchise has been on something of a downward trend in recent years, which probably explains their choice to try to squeeze extra money out of anyone who buys their games. But continuing to expand the use of loot boxes isn't exactly timely, what with the UK passing laws that ban some types of loot boxes and even mobile app stores starting to shy away from micro transactions through the use of new subscription programs.
Of course, Activision never gets as much flak as EA for its money-grubbing ways, possibly because they don't publish as many games as EA, so it's not as obvious that the publisher's design philosophy has slid more towards leeching off of impressionable and deep-pocketed players than on compelling gameplay. But if the company keeps on this track, their reputations will become irreparably tarnished.
Whether they'll care -- and whether that'll even affect their bottom line in the long run -- is another matter.