Call of Duty’s big new Season 4 update added a lot of new content to the game, along with a controversial new UI feature that displayed in-game ads for paid DLC bundles from the weapons menu. The idea, many thought, was that Activision was intrusively trying to push microtransactions on players in a new way.
Now, Activision has disabled this and claimed it was only a “test” that was added to the game by accident. Fans aren’t buying that explanation, however.
“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,” Activision said.
The replies to Activision’s post are full of people claiming Activision is gaslighting fans and offering a poor excuse for what happened. Some people replied to say the new UI feature was helpful to them, as it surfaced a specific weapon or bundle that they might have otherwise never seen.
In any event, the feature is now gone, but its removal isn’t likely to do much to quell the concerns of some that Call of Duty is pushing microtransactions on players. The game regularly highlights paid DLC bundles that players can spend money on to acquire new operators, guns, and other items. This is a fairly common practice for many online multiplayer games.
Call of Duty’s newest store bundle brings Ana de Armas’ character from the John Wick movie Ballerina to the game, and it launches today.
For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of all the new maps and guns in the Season 4 update, along with our breakdown of what’s in the new battle pass. The Zombies mode, meanwhile, gets a big update with the introduction of Grief mode. There are numerous new updates for Warzone, too.