With the move from shipping with a traditional story mode, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 could be following in the footsteps of Star Wars Battlefront II with free multiplayer DLC. But there’s a catch, Zombies fans may have a Season Pass to purchase.
There’s no doubt about it, fans of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 are absolutely excited about the game ahead of its October release. But since its announcement last week, many of us have been left scratching our heads at one simple question: What about DLC? Activision and developer Treyarch have been rather vague on how DLC will be treated with Black Ops 4 and if there will be DLC at all.
As one of the many franchises that are always continually growing, evolving, and becoming one of the biggest esports titles in the world, Call of Duty has changed quite a bit over the years. In their latest move, it seems that the publisher-developer combo may be ditching traditional DLC schemes for an approach that has been working quite well for EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, Ubisoft’s titles Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor – no paid DLC. None what-so-ever. The only thing the latter two have that the previous didn’t? Early access passes and a Zombies only Season Pass.
According to website GamingIntel.com, their sources over at Activision/Treyarch have confirmed that Black Ops 4 will be treated differently than past titles in the franchise. Their new approach would see Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ship without a traditional season pass in order to have a higher player-engagement rate than ever before. This means you won’t need to concern yourself with a Black Ops 4 Season Pass in order to continue playing with your friends, but rather, just update your game, ensure the latest maps are installed and get back to raining havoc upon your foes.
According to the site, Treyarch is looking to change the cause of player drop off shortly after a map pack releases. Instead, this new approach, it seems is aimed at keeping player retention, allowing fans to continue enjoying their game without feeling obligated to purchase DLC and or a Season Pass as the games life progresses. However, it doesn’t help the fact that content will eventually slow down as a new Call of Duty prepares to launch in the following year. The site also claims that there’s a possibility users could see one or two map launches in a single month in order to keep a steady flow of content being released.
Another reason behind the change could be Black Ops 4 and its upcoming Battle Royale mode called “Blackout mode”. Let alone will this be the first time a Call of Duty title explored the possibilities of enjoying a Battle Royale mode, but it would also allow Activision to see a steady stream of revenue from heavily engaged players when the game launches later this year. If done right, begin to rival the popularity of Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale, which has an unrivaled popularity boom since its launch as a free-to-play title.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the possibility of Black Ops 4 going to the approach of DLC being free of charge for the games multiplayer component. Dan Bunting, co-studio head of Treyarch, even acknowledged that we will see content being delivered in an entirely new way during an interview with news publisher Polygon.
“I can’t tell you at this point in time what that’s going to look like,” Bunting said. “But I can tell you that we are pushing hard to release content to our fans in a way that’s going to make them happy and a way that we believe is the right thing to do in this stage in our game’s lifespan.”
While we here at Blast Away the Game Review are certainly excited about the upcoming title, we still believe this rumor should be taken with a pinch of salt and we should wait until E3 2018 before taking this as a confirmation regarding Activision and Treyarch’s plans for post-launch Black Ops 4 DLC.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console game reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPGs, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.