You can’t think of egregious and aggressive monetization in games and not immediately think of Activision as well. The publisher has a reputation for implementing heavy microtransactions in its games, and though they’ve largely been of the cosmetic variety recently, they’ve still been heavy. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launched without such issues, but microtransactions were introduced post-launch. Just last month, Activision was selling single dot on the screen – a reticle – for $1 (that’s literally all it was), and now they’re at it again.
The “Cyclops” reticle, which doesn’t look that much different from standard reticles in the game, is being sold in the in-game store, the Black Market, for $1 (via MP1st). Instead of just a dot, this time the reticle is a dot surrounded by (almost) a circle. Still- value for money? I think not.
The argument that it’s a cosmetic purchase that doesn’t impact gameplay is a valid one as always, but when a reticle of all things, which also doesn’t look all that different from the standard one in the game, is being sold for $1 (or any amount, for that matter), there’s little doubt left about whether or not there’s a problem.