Premium battle passes are already a pervasive (some would say predatory) mechanic in online gaming, but what if there was a premium battle pass for your premium battle pass? Such is the ethos behind Call of Duty: Warzone‘s BlackCell upgrades, and players are beginning to tire of their predictable aesthetics.
At its core, BlackCell is an idea Epic Games is probably kicking itself for not thinking of first. Essentially, players can pay a premium on top of the cost of the paid battle pass to unlock an even higher-tier reward track that includes exclusive Operators, skins, finishing moves, and more. This upgrade costs $30, or just under half the price of a modern triple-A game.
With the reveal of the Modern Warfare III iteration of Warzone‘s fifth season, its many changes and additions, and accompanying battle pass, players have begun to notice trends in the BlackCell content—and they’re not happy. A Reddit thread bemoaning BlackCell’s devotion to the black and gold aesthetic racked up hundreds of upvotes on the CoD subreddit, with many tearing into the lack of aesthetic variety offered at such a premium price.
The black and gold color scheme has been used as visual shorthand for “this is premium” for a long while, but there’s an debate to be had about whether it has any place in an ostensibly serious military shooter (although Warzone does let you play as Homelander, so who’s to say how serious it is?) It doesn’t look good in Assassin’s Creed and it doesn’t look good here. The general sentiment seemed to be that the BlackCell skins were little more than style over substance, with the top-rated comment decrying them as “lazy shit” that thankfully meant they were “never conflicted to buy it.”
Indeed, looking at BlackCell’s track record, it’s not hard to see how the CoD fandom has been walking away with aesthetic fatigue. Most of the skins look more fit to be a teenager’s Xbox Live avatar than going on covert black ops missions, with Season Two’s new gold-dipped skeleton standing out as a particularly egregious offender.
Suggestions like changing the BlackCell offerings with each season rather than sticking to the vague, samey luxury aesthetic were made, with players hoping to see diversity in the ultra-premium lineup, but it’s overwhelmingly likely these complaints fall on deaf ears. As long as players keep paying the price of admission, the skins will keep coming. It’s Activision’s gaming world, and we’re all living in it (or getting fired from it.)
