Call of Duty dips into ‘pay-to-win’ with $12 bundle that gives you actual gameplay advantages
A new premium operator comes with special “DMZ boosts.”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Call of Duty is treading where few live service games dare go. As part of this week’s launch of Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 Season 3, a new cosmetic bundle that grants significant gameplay advantages in DMZ mode has appeared, and more are coming. Players are declaring this a move toward Warzone 2 becoming “pay-to-win,” and they’re not wrong.
The first bundle to include whatActivision’s calling a “DMZ boost” is the $12 EOD Specialist bundle for Fender. At a glance the bundle is just a forgettable operator skin with a “pro-tuned” LMG blueprint, but equip them in Warzone’s extraction mode, DMZ, and they become a lot more valuable—players with the EOD operator skin are automatically given a free medium backpack, and the LMG comes with a special 15-minute insured cooldown after dying (much shorter than a free gun’s 2-hour penalty).
What does this mean in practice? While a normal operator typically starts a DMZ match with naked contraband guns and little storage space, players sporting this $12 bundle get an automatic headstart on looting with an optimized LMG. In that sense, this is more of a “pay-for-boost” than “pay-to-win,” but some players are rebuking DMZ boosts on principle.
“This is wrong & completely tone deaf,“tweetedYouTuber Westie.
“Get ready for even more mobile gaming monetization tactics,” wrote Reddit userElMalViajado.
“The stuff that you can buy in these bundles is stuff you can’t normally grind for,” said YouTuberLegoUnlocked. “It’s pretty pay-to-win.”
It’s easy to see how minor paid advantages can turn into bigger ones, especially because some supposedstore leaks suggestfuture bundles will include a free self-revive kit and a medium armor vest, two key upgrades that could help you win a firefight.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Hunt: Showdown does this better
Interestingly, fans of one particular extraction shooter that Warzone 2 takes inspiration from will recognize where this DMZ boost idea is coming from. Hunt: Showdown uses a similar system with its premium hunter skins—recruiting a premium hunter instantly grants you three random perks to start the match with. You are literally paying for an advantage in that game too, but there are a few factors that have kept Hunt players from sharpening their pitchforks:
Call of Duty’s skins, by hand-selecting DMZ benefits and restricting them only to premium purchases, directly tweak its meta in a way that encourages players to pony up cash to keep up with everyone else.
It’s a bad look for a gargantuan monetization operation that, at the same time as this update, has introduced a new tier of battle pass that coststriple the usual price. Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 Season 3 are live now.
Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn’t pay him. He’s very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he’ll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don’t, though.
The best Black Ops 6 map for XP grinding finally got a 24/7 playlist, so you know what to do
Black Ops 6 is wasting no time stinking up the joint with ugly skins
Warren Spector found working on his cancelled Half-Life episode ‘a little frustrating’, but he’ll be ‘forever grateful’ to Valve for keeping his studio alive
