Activision Insists Heavily Criticized Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Warzone Ads in Loadout Menus Were a ‘Test’ Published ‘In Error,’ Strips Them Out Following Backlash

Activision has pulled controversial Call of Duty adverts placed inside Black Ops 6 and Warzone loadouts, insisting they were a “feature test” published “in error.”

Following last week’s launch of Season 4, adverts for weapon bundles could be seen in the build and weapon menus of Black Ops 6 and Warzone. These were unavoidable for players as they tinkered with their loadouts.

Players absolutely hated them, with some going as far as to say they were the last straw. “I wouldn’t even be mad if this was just in Warzone, a free game, but putting it in a pay-to-play premium title, with how expensive they’re getting? F**k off,” read one angry comment. “This game is still 80€ I get that they make most of their money from the store, but I feel like the bare minimum for a premium product would be to not have ads clogging the menus right?” read another. “At this point it really feels like opening up a mobile game with how much more you see an option to buy anything in this game,” said another player.

Now, Activision has tweeted to say the adverts had been removed, and offered an explanation: “A UI feature test that surfaced select store content in the Loadout menus was published in the Season 04 update in error,” the company tweeted. “This feature has now been removed from the live game.”

It’s fair to say there’s a healthy dose of scepticism from the Call of Duty on Activision’s statement here, with some outright refusing to believe the ads were pushed live by mistake.

“They do this crap every cycle around this time… introduce something awful and see if people are mad or not,” said one fan. “If the outrage is enough they pretend like it was an accident and remove it.” “AKA: we saw how much everyone hated and ridiculed our shameless attempt to include unavoidable ads so we removed it,” said another.

Call of Duty has had its monetization crises in the past, of course. And players are used to battle passes, premium battle passes, and even more expensive versions of premium battle passes on top of the $70 (soon to be $80) cost of entry. But there is a growing feeling that the franchise’s microtransaction strategy has become even more aggressive following Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

All eyes are on the next Call of Duty, reportedly a Black Ops 2 sequel, to see if Activision tries adverts in loadouts for real this time.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.