Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 offered skins for $20-40 right in the menu — Activision called the ad a «mistake»

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is growing scandals with microtransactions — this time Activision Blizzard «mistakenly» offered skins for $20-40.

With the release of Season 4, players noticed that banners appeared in the equipment menu and the Events tab. They directly offered to buy skins for $20-40, and it was impossible to remove these banners. As a result, fans got angry, especially since micropayments are already deeply integrated into the franchise.

The community quickly reminded that the regular edition of Black Ops 6 costs $80, and the extended edition will cost $110 (by the way, until June 6, discounts of up to -45% in Steam). Therefore, the desire to keep the game menu free of ads is the minimum that users expect. Some have compared this approach to mobile games, where every second click is an attempt to sell something. Only here it is not an elementary application on a gadget, but one of Microsoft’s key projects.

Activision Blizzard reacted quickly to the situation. The company disowned the banners, which they called «false». Although it can be assumed that the «developers were testing the waters for».

The developer says that in-game advertising in the equipment menu is a bug, but we’re going to stick with the phrase «UI feature test». Players have been hating on the publisher, forcing them to remove the banners, but they are testing the feature for a reason. It is likely that the inevitable ads will become part of future Activision Blizzard games (which is already known for its huge volume of microtransactions).

📢 Call of Duty #BlackOps6 | Call of Duty #Warzone

A UI feature test that surfaced select store content in the Loadout menus was published in the Season 04 update in error. This feature has now been removed from the live game.

— Call of Duty Updates (@CODUpdates) June 2, 2025

Criticism Call of Duty monetization is not a new thing. Players are already used to battle passes of different levels and constant microtransactions. But after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft for $69 billion many people felt that the pressure on their wallets became even more severe. We’ll see what happens next with the next Call of Duty release, which is rumored to be a sequel to Black Ops 2.

Source: IGN