Is the Battle Pass Just as Egregious as Loot Boxes?
I bought and started playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare on the 13th of April when it was on sale. I purchased the game via the Battle.net launcher and not through a third party key seller. The game includes a Single Player campaign, Multiplayer and Co-operative gameplay as well as the new Warzone which includes various versions of the popular Battle Royale mode. Call of Duty Warzone can also be downloaded separately for free, without the need to buy the base game. Due to the recent controversies surrounding the use of loot boxes as a business model, Activision have instead implemented a Battle Pass system which is tied to the games “seasons”. A season runs for about 50 plus days. The current one (season 3) is scheduled to end on June 2nd. Here is the official blurb regarding how the Battle Pass system works.
The Battle Pass is a tiered reward system that awards players with items as they play Warzone and Multiplayer. It contains 100 Tiers of content to earn, with over a fifth of those being free for all players. Upgrading to the full Battle Pass gives you access to all 100 Tiers along with a bundle of exclusive items for Battle Pass owners. For example, Season 2 Battle Pass owners gain access to the Operator Ghost, the Marshland skin and Operator Mission for Thorne, the Time Traveler watch, and a 10% global XP boost. The full Battle Pass can either be purchased for 1,000 COD Points or 2,400 COD Points (the Battle Pass Bundles), which automatically unlocks 20 Tiers upon purchase. At first glance it all seems very simple. You can buy a pass and unlock content as you increase in rank. You can pay extra and buy the pass and automatically unlock the first 20 levels. Or you can choose not to buy the pass and as you rank up gain the occasional free item.
But the reality of the Battle Pass system is in many ways just as insidious as loot boxes. It plays to exactly the same “fear of missing out” mindset. Cosmetics, despite what many publishers publicly state, are not just “optional” for many players. If they were then “default” wouldn’t have become a pejorative term in Fortnite. The ability to customise your avatar and establish your own identity is often an integral part of game enjoyment for many players. Possibly more so in competitive genres. And then there are the Weapon Blueprints which offer a substantial advantage. All weapons in CoD have multiple attachments and are highly customisable. However you have to earn weapon XP and to unlock the different variations. If you favour a specific Assault Rifle with a certain selection of attachments, it may take you a significant amount of time to access them. Weapon Blueprints which feature in the Battle Pass can provide superior gear a lot quicker. Two players can start playing CoD MW/WZ on the same day. The one that buys a Battle Pass Bundle which immediately unlocks the first 20 tiers and thus has access to a Weapon Blueprint has an instant advantage.
I did not buy a Battle Pass straight away but decided to do so after I had progressed to about tier 30. My main motivation was mainly for research for this blog post. The game certainly makes a big deal about the current content of the Battle Pass both before you buy one and then after. After you finish a game, an animation shows your rank progression and your respective unlocks. If you haven’t purchased one you are frequently prompted to do so. And once you have, the next line of marketing is to encourage the player to buy more Call of Duty Points and unlock tier rewards in advance. If you are currently tier 47 and there’s a cosmetic skin you desire at tier 50, you can simply pay to unlock the intervening tiers if you haven’t the patience to grind the required XP. And this is where the real money lies for Activision. Some players will see what is available in a Battle Pass at the start of a season and will want to access it immediately. So they will buy a Battle Pass Bundle which unlocks the first 20 tiers for $24 and will then buy out the remaining 80 tiers at a cost of a further $120.
I unlocked the last tier of my Battle Pass last night. I must admit I felt a need to play and ensure that I unlocked all rewards before the current season ended. Otherwise I would have felt that I’d somehow “wasted my money”. And that feeling I had is a prime example of how these business models play upon consumers desires and personal psychology. A competent and experienced CoD player can come to this new version of the game and grind out all their favourite weapon unlocks without paying any money. But for regular players if they pursue a similar course of action, the first month will be hard work and often you’ll face other players with the advantage of superior loadouts. And let us not forget that as well as the Battle Pass system, there numerous ad hoc bundles of skins, cosmetics and Weapon Blueprints in the game store. These are frequently only available for a short time so there is a sense of urgency if you see something you want to buy. Hence, although I am enjoying this game I am ambivalent regarding its monetisation. So far 60 million players have downloaded CoD WZ in the first two month since its launch. If only 10% are paying customers that’s still a lot of money.
