
The general sentiment seems to be that since COD:AW has its own new kind of co-op mode, Exo Survival, Zombies is a "perk" and therefore has every right to be sold separately. Update: Some are taking issue with my criticism, including both Activision itself and my colleague Erik Kain. We'll have more information about Zombies as it gets closer to release, and Advanced Warfare officially comes out tomorrow, though select retailers (including the digital store) are selling copies today. The only way to stop this kind of thing is to reject it, and though would I would say $50 season passes are nearing the end of the line, it's hard to tell in the industry these days. That's a third of the price of an entire Xbox One if you buy it on sale right now.Īgain, the question with DLC is always "where does it end?" With Call of Duty, the annual money pile it creates allows Activision to experiment more than most other series would dare.

It does seem like a crazy amount of maps will likely end up being included in that total, not to mention Zombies now, but still, $110 up front for all of a single game's content is pushing it for any franchise. But if these are the only points of consolation, it's still rather maddening from the consumer's perspective.Īctivision must be confident enough in their playerbase at this point to know that there's a market for something as seemingly absurd as a $50 season pass, or else it wouldn't exist. And I assume the Zombies DLC isn't only going to be available through purchase of a season pass, as I have to imagine it will be sold separately when the time comes. Maybe it was never supposed to be a another pillar of the game alongside story, Exo Survival co-op and multiplayer, and they just added it in even though it wasn't a Treyarch production because they know people like it. We still know little about Activision/Sledgehammer's plans for Zombies. But because they know they have that freedom, they're going to keep constantly pushing the bounds of what's acceptable to charge extra for, and now Zombies is on the chopping block.


Granted, Activision can essentially do whatever it wants with Call of Duty, given the fact that any new installment is going to be one of the top selling games of the year.
