Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Offers $20 Premium 'Pay-to-Hear' Audio Tech

So overall Activision being Activision? Such a shocker........

We've reached new levels of insanity.

I’m sorry what the actual f*ck. This used to be a natural new feature in games. It also gives a massive advantage to players who pay for it. This is pay to win.

This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

Next thing you know they are going to charge for reduced input lag on controllers. Not cool COD. Not cool at all.

“Want subtitles? Subscribe to our yearly text DLC for only $10!”

“Would you like non-grayscale? Try our HDR add-on for only $30 a month!”

This is absolutely a hilarious and blatant money scam 💩

A new low for a game series and company full of lows! There are (dumb) consumers out there who will buy this subscription, which is why it exists.

The true cost of Gamepass

Be ready for future titles to charge 20 bucks pr multiplayer Map

I heard how the COD HQ launcher makes you back out of an ad for the new game if you want to play an old game, and I just don't get who would tolerate that...much less this kind of BS. Man, enjoy, I guess. AAA is an endless source of hilarity.

Each purchase comes with a free dunce cap.

It's time to boycott all Activision games.

But I heard from some hardcore Xbox people that their dear leader Phil Spencer would remove this kind of summy nonsense from Call of Duty. I wonder what changed,

@RBMango Phil is a scumbag who lies about everything.

@XenonKnight I think that's a little harsh. At this point he's more of a puppet than anything, cause he clearly ain't the one making decisions anymore, that's for darn sure.

Guys, we really should've made a bigger deal about the horse armor.

Wtf charging for better sound quality in a $70 game is crazy

Maybe even worse/funnier than the monthly subscription car seat warmers

@Bigmanfan So your saying that scumbag of a CEO is making him lie more!? I'm so happy I refunded this Activision trash game today.

Activision can 100% afford to implement it free for everyone but they would rather make us pay for it...

Welp another reason not to buy this year's cod

@XenonKnight Agree with the sentiment on refunding the game lol. I would too, cause this is one of the scummiest things I've seen. However, it has little to do with Phil Spencer. I highly doubt he told them to charge 20 bucks for "enhanced headphone mode." Even writing "enhanced headphone mode" is so dumb. How did we get to the point where this has happened? 20 bucks for audio? This is rediculous.

@Bigmanfan Next year Activision will want more then $20 for it and they will try this with other games.

@XenonKnight They'll probably start putting ads in loading screens too. But don't worry, they'll let you remove ads for just 4.99$ a month!

@AdamNovice exactly and the 3d audio works just fine with my pulse headset. I really like my pulse headset and I've not yet tried a set that offer up the same level of fidelity for under £100.

@Enuo Yeah. Sure it's a "cost of Game Pass"

Especially since Cyberpunk and Final Fantasy XIV have this paid tech too

Im glad i was done with this company and franchise a long time ago. God forbid they offer the best to their customers out the box day 1.
It amazes me really as i struggle to think up another way they scam people but they never seem to fail.

Typical ABK, this is why I stopped playing any of their games a long time ago, they are turning everything into MTX riddled cash grabs and now resulting to this Bulls**t.

@nessisonett not pay-to-win... pay-to-listen (very different concepts). And they've got another four senses to come. Next will be an enhance visualization mode (coincidentally added shortly after they introduce a new fog-of-war feature where there is literally fog obscuring your vision). The new gaming... where the big-tech-carny's ply their trade to squeeze every last dime out of it's players.

@B_Lindz free dunce-hat... nah mate... that's a premium skin that will cost ya a tenner at least.

“You don’t have to buy it if don’t want to”, and this is where we get to.

Charging for audio in a game, oooooh what a time we live in 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑👀

I can forsee a day when they offer (much like Netflix and Disney plus) 'resolution' levels, where basic is 1080p and premium is 4k for £20 more.

Keep squeezing that udder!!

i have tinitus and 52 so i cant see any benifit. but if you convince yourself its makes you play better good on you

@Futureshark already do called xbox series s and x

In game items to purchase in this latest edition include a chocolate teapot and a comb for a bald man.

@Korgon after reduced input lag they’ll charge per bullet

Gaming is just getting worse each year. Price increases on games and hardware, Ultimate editions, gold editions with Season Passes. Battle Passes, buggy game at launch. And now this. Gaming is definitely becoming a luxury now.
And the biggest issue is people keep buying. Even some gamer complaining about this audio thing will just submit anyway.
Its like streaming services, I have friends whom are complaining about the prices but when asked if they canceled the answer was no.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/10/black-ops-6-includes-a-paid-option-for-better-audio-but-its-not-as-bad-as-it-seems

So, just to be clear, the above statement is not correct. The free trial and payment option that's mentioned in the image is for a "Personalized Profile" that will customise the sound "to your unique physiology".

FREE - Universal Profile is your entry vector to a deeper level of spatial awareness and accurate 3D sound. Fine-tuned to the unique sound world of Call of Duty, every explosion and footstep are perfectly balanced so you can hear every detail of the battlefield with precision.

Article has just been created for clicks and not giving all the info that was available yesterday.

@Nexozi you beat me by 20 minutes I was looking for this comment!

Shame on PS for not doing full fact check.

Hopefully the article gets updated

@Nexozi well if there's one thing that perhaps is going south faster than gaming company ethics, it's game 'journalism' ethics / attention to facts. To be fair however, I guess a lot of people were quick to dog-pile (me included)... which is exactly what to expect when you have someone dog-whistling a storm in a 3D audio tea-cup.

I think the real take-home for me is... basically everyone believed it without question; because we've been trained that there's almost no low that publishers will not try to test. Remember a time when people just got excited about great games coming out?

It's funny how the worst companies become parody of themselves (EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Bethesda).

At this rate, they will sell hardware acceleration separately in the next entry. And audio will need to be bought in lootboxes.

Take a leaf out of your sister site Pure Xbox, Push Square and report the facts in a proper way, rather than trying to incite outraged gamers and gain clicks.
This is in no way as bad as it seems if you give the whole story and print the full article

Funny but this sounds exactly like the 'Audio' that Playstation were offering with their Playstation Hardware. The same situation as Mark Cerny described for PS5's audio capabilities being tailored specifically to the shape of our ears to provide a more 'accurate' soundscape.

Just like that, you too can have your Ears and Face scanned for your own unique and bespoke profile tailored specifically for you instead of the more 'generic' profile designed to cater to the 'Average', the 'majority'.

That's all this is - something Mark Cerny said we could do with PS5 and its Audio, have our own Audio profile specific to the way we 'hear' based on our unique ear shape - its not a 'custom' soundscape that 'specifically' lets you hear Footsteps louder - its meant to 'help' make the soundscape more 'accurate' if the more generalised Profile isn't 'accurate' for you.

I don't believe this will be Pay to Win. For most people, the difference will be 'negligible' as they are within the 'average' range the general profile was designed for - where the majority would also be. However, for some it could be a 'Game Changer' but only because it now enables them to pinpoint where the sounds are coming from too, just like those who don't 'need' their own profile...

It's crazy that this article was actually put up and soo long after the pure xbox article. Considering push square and pure xbox are under the same thing. Since you can buy a subscription to stop seeing ads.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner close! 😂

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare 100% think lots of people just jump on things now especially if it something that they can beat the publisher / developer with. The ethics of journalism now is so low and not just in gaming. It's just about getting clicks by pushing stories that annoy people.

I heard this coming.

So what has Phil lied about, @XenonKnight? Just curious...

This is obviously them testing the waters to see if people are stupid enough to pay for it
I could have told them before hand that yes, yes they are stupid enough and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for allowing this to become the new normal

The fact we have seen next to 0 about the campaign tells me everything I need to know. Cod always had very good single player campaigns that lasted around 5 hours however this one is apparently less than 3.

20 bucks AND with a time limit! Hahaha going broke in the future, this company is. Because they went... well you know, the thing.

@AfroMario they'll hardly go broke lol. This will more than likely be the best selling game this year, like every year and earn them hundreds of millions in MTX's

You laugh but watch millions purchase this.

Microtransactions are sadly here to stay

I'm well out of the loop here. I thought Activision was bought out by Microsoft so aren't they now just Microsoft? Aren't these decisions now Microsoft decision? #confused

@KingPev nah, they'll go broke. Just a matter of time.

What next, I buy a new game and find fov, and motion blur sliders greyed out, same thing with custom button mapping and subtitle size options? I then find out for a $10 unlock fee I can have access to those greyed out settings.

well this is completely misleading everyone gets access to the spatial audio using the free universal profile the people that want to buy for it just get to edit the profile.

@Deadlyblack whats ridiculous is misleading this article is

Listen Locate the truth lies, ha says what now?

A new low for Activi$ion 🤮

I'm glad i didn't buy any of their games for years with Sekiro the only exception because From Soft made it and it's an amazing game.

Calling it now, in the future they’ll be charging extra for the highest graphical settings designed for higher spec PCs and Pro-version consoles.

It’s just an annual reskin. Anyone who pays anything for it at all is a mug.