Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's 'Cross-Gen Bundle' will cost $70

[Polycount]

In brief: AAA video games have been priced at $60 for roughly a decade and a half now. However, as games evolve technologically and graphically, the cost of development has increased. Microtransactions are a popular way to recoup those costs and bring in more profit, but increased base price tags are another emerging trend for some AAA publishers.

Take-Two shocked the gaming world when it announced that NBA 2K21 would cost $70 on next-gen consoles. It was a decision that many gamers saw coming, but that didn't make it any easier for everyone to swallow.

Gamers likely hoped Take-Two's decision would be a one-off move, but the new price point has already started to ripple out to other AAA publishers.

In the wake of Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War announcement today, the company has revealed that Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions of the upcoming shooter will also cost a whopping $70.

Activision is calling this $70 version a "Cross-Gen Bundle" because it has backward compatibility with current-gen consoles. However, that's more of a marketing distinction than a practical one.

Since there isn't a next-gen-only version yet (without current-gen access thrown in), if you want a PS5 or Xbox Series X copy, there's no way to not shell out that extra $10 -- for now. There's also an $80 Ultimate Edition which includes everything the Cross-Gen bundle has, in addition to extra cosmetic skins and Cold War's Season Pass.

Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War launches on November 13 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The next-gen release date is still undetermined, but it should take place sometime in "Holiday 2020."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86528-call-duty-black-ops-cold-war-cross-gen.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Gradually increasing game cost while delivering less return.

 

[yRaz]

The AAA game industry is a scam. I'm an adult at this point, I may play 30-40 hours of video games a year. I'm just not going to pay that price, AAA games are junk at this point anyway. Cyberpunk 2077 might be the last videogame I play unless Nintendo comes out with Breath of the Wild 2. Well, I always keep Mario Kart around, but that's mostly for kicking my friends butts when they come over after a night of drinking too much.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Worth about $1 with all the DLC.

 

[Edster]

I can understand games with huge amount of content and ambition being sold at 70 dollars. Proper high quality games with huge investments like Red Dead Redemption, Cyberpunk etc, games with huge detail open world with years of development, I really don't mind the price point to be higher. There are plenty of games that I am willing to pay for average quality extra content simply because I think the original was so good.

Whereas games like 2K21, CoD, they are low quality, high churn rate games that is developed and published every year with recycled assets and sold at full price with tons of microtransactions.

 

[Skjorn]

Worth about $1 with all the DLC.

one dollar? come on man. you may not like the game but its more than a damn dollar.

Bean Battles is a dollar. don't be a sensationalist, no one takes em serious.

 

[Lounds]

I can understand games with huge amount of content and ambition being sold at 70 dollars. Proper high quality games with huge investments like Red Dead Redemption, Cyberpunk etc, games with huge detail open world with years of development, I really don't mind the price point to be higher. There are plenty of games that I am willing to pay for average quality extra content simply because I think the original was so good.

Whereas games like 2K21, CoD, they are low quality, high churn rate games that is developed and published every year with recycled assets and sold at full price with tons of microtransactions.

From what I gather Activision gives the Call of Duty developers 3 years to a make a CoD game. Maybe it'll be good? I think the biggest problem is most gamers have gotten FPS fatigue.

 

[Nobina]

Imagine buying the same re-skinned game every year or two. Just when you think you've got all the things bought or unlocked nothing matters as there's a new CoD next year which is literally the same game but this one is set in different time period.

 

[texasrattler]

From what I gather Activision gives the Call of Duty developers 3 years to a make a CoD game. Maybe it'll be good? I think the biggest problem is most gamers have gotten FPS fatigue.

It did but not for this one. Treyarchs game wasn't even to come out till 2021 but because Sledgehammer and Raven Software couldn't get along, Activsion told Treyarch to bring BO CW this year. Ending the 3 year cycle. So they didn't have as much time as they normally would but they have still been working on it for awhile. Raven is helping/co developing the game. I dont think Sledgehammer will have much to do with this game, if any.

The story looks interesting but BO is famous for zombies. BO 4 zombies was highly disappointing. The game should bring back some fun zombie maps.

 

[3volv3d]

From what I gather Activision gives the Call of Duty developers 3 years to a make a CoD game. Maybe it'll be good? I think the biggest problem is most gamers have gotten FPS fatigue.

I know I am bored of FPS. There was a clunky 3rd person, 4 player co-op series, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivotal_Games and I loved this. You had to work together to get through the game, cause it was very unforgiving in places. Shoot die respawn, gets boring fast. I have never liked CoD as BFBC2 was so great, and even the later BF games were just meh to me.
Fancy graphics and lack of playablity.
There are few games that really wow me, I usually buy in sale. The raise in price if for those people who must have that game on release, you know the type, love to put "first" in a forum post.