As gaming continues to undergo rapid corporatization, some practices that haven’t sat well with players over the past few years have emerged. One is the early access for pre-orders, which grants players a few days’ head start in games. However, Black Ops 6 miraculously won’t have it.
This was first reported by Charlie Intel on X (formerly Twitter) today, Sept. 10, providing an Activision representative’s statement in full. The representative apparently said the developers are “fully focused on Oct. 25,” adding that “this year, [they] have made the decision to ensure the community gets to dig into any and all modes that they want at the same time.” This means Call of Duty‘s next iteration will have no early access for pre-orders, unlike some of its predecessors, and will very much differ from most of the AAA market these past few years.
While the Activision representative reportedly didn’t say the decision was made due to the developer’s commitment to the game, it might be that the company wished to avoid a negative reaction to potential early access. Just recently, Activision’s sister company Blizzard hopped on the early access trend with The War Within expansion for World of Warcraft, allowing owners of the so-called Epic Edition to play the title much earlier than everyone else. Players generally reacted negatively, as WoW never had such a clause on any of its expansions before.
Early access for pre-orders is a growing trend in the gaming industry that is still quite prevalent despite being mostly poorly received by players. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft have been the ones to practice it the most, though Black Ops 6 may be a sign of change. Hopefully, the trend will go away as fast as it cropped up.
