Modern Warfare devs explain plans for mictrotransaction and “loot box” system

Lead developers at Infinity Ward Joe Cecot and Taylor Kurosaki have responded to fans’ concerns about loot boxes and microtransactions in their upcoming Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare.

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Call of Duty titles have come under fire in recent years for what some call ‘predatory’ microtransactions, which are designed to drive revenue from in-game spending.

As consumers have become more and more averse to certain forms of microtransactions, loot boxes especially, Call of Duty has continued to use the model, causing controversy throughout the life cycle of 2018’s Black Ops 4.

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Even entire weapons have been made only available through the supply drop or ‘reserves’ system in Black Ops 4, which amounted to significant backlash from players.

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Although it will come from a different developer, Activision is still the publisher for Modern Warfare, and fans are concerned that they push these MTX systems, not Infinity Ward.

When asked, “There’s going to be loot boxes in this game, isn’t there?”, Cecot responded “We can’t really comment on MTX or our systems for that right now (…) All I can say is that we’re pushing really hard to create a player-first or player-forward system.”

Topic starts at 43:50 for mobile users

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He continued, “It’s something that’s really important to us on the development side. We want, when we release new content, for players to get access to that content and have fun with it, so it’s a huge focus for us.

“We want players enjoying our game, having fun in our game,” Cecot concluded. 

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Cecot also explains that weapon camos will be used as a ‘status symbol’ in-game, only unlocked by completing challenges with that weapon: “When you see someone who has that badass camo, then you know that person put in some work, so that’s how we’re looking at the system.”

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Past Call of Duty releases have not featured much in the way of microtransactions at launch, but Black Ops 4 added in numerous systems months after release, including a Fortnite-style battle pass, a cosmetics shop, and the dreaded supply drops.

Modern Warfare is set to release on October 25 on PS4, Xbox One and PC – and players will see then what kind of MTX system they are up against.