00:00:00
you know in a sense this is like grim
00:00:01
and depressing stuff but honestly for
00:00:03
the scope of this video man this is fun
00:00:05
I can't wait this is a banger so let's
00:00:07
go steam's policy just forced Activision
00:00:10
to disclose their use of AI in Call of
00:00:12
Duty that hard confirms what uh well
00:00:15
we've all seen with her eyeballs but it
00:00:17
also confirms leaks including leaks of
00:00:19
internal documents that we actually
00:00:21
covered a little while ago but then we
00:00:23
zoomed in in the story and when we did
00:00:25
it got worse and this has got to be seen
00:00:28
to be believed it's not the title we've
00:00:31
run with for today's video I think
00:00:33
anyway but they've literally found a way
00:00:35
to profit from your death yeah hilarious
00:00:38
Now card has always been a massive
00:00:39
money-making machine now it looks
00:00:42
desperate even though it's literally not
00:00:44
desperate it's successful no this is not
00:00:47
desperation this is them pushing and
00:00:49
pushing and most egregiously there is a
00:00:51
new system designed to profit from your
00:00:53
death in the game it's all made worse of
00:00:55
course by AI cheapening what we even see
00:00:57
in the game including our rewards and
00:00:59
that means that it doesn't feel like the
00:01:01
fruits of their truly absurd overpriced
00:01:04
complex layered monetization system I
00:01:06
mean even just before recording there
00:01:08
was a thing that we thought conferred
00:01:09
certain benefits right for like buying
00:01:11
it for the season then we found out it's
00:01:13
actually a like stacking thing as you
00:01:15
buy it across Seasons this is insane I'm
00:01:17
going to go mad but don't worry we'll go
00:01:19
mad for you and the upshot is something
00:01:21
that cost $70 with a budget of well over
00:01:25
600 million I mean Cod blops cow yep
00:01:28
that one cost 700 million milon H
00:01:31
something with that budget and this
00:01:32
price tag has never felt so cheap let's
00:01:36
go now something you don't know about me
00:01:38
is that I enjoy building things like
00:01:39
this app front end and that's why
00:01:41
today's sponsor boot dodev is so
00:01:43
relevant because with boot you'll learn
00:01:45
backend web development using Python and
00:01:47
go I've got a sick discount for you
00:01:49
those are two excellent languages and
00:01:51
they will set you up well as a
00:01:52
programmer and uh why I love boot though
00:01:55
specifically is how it works because
00:01:56
it's basically a fantasy RPG you've got
00:01:59
quests XP public leaderboards I mean
00:02:01
just look at the public leaderboard
00:02:02
updating in real time as real users are
00:02:04
doing lessons and so much more like the
00:02:07
spell book which is packed with
00:02:09
programming reference material but you
00:02:11
unlock it as you progress in a natural
00:02:13
way it's so cool and that's all because
00:02:15
boots founder loves RPGs actually a
00:02:17
viewer of our channels and that's why
00:02:19
he's built it for people like us and
00:02:21
you'll learn real practical programming
00:02:23
skills not just Basics that means
00:02:26
portfolio project mastering git and what
00:02:28
you'll actually need for a real job and
00:02:31
the best news is you'll get 25% off your
00:02:33
first purchase at boot. bellular news
00:02:36
and it's zero risk you can browse their
00:02:38
content do demos and a lot more for free
00:02:41
and when you do buy they're backed by a
00:02:43
30-day money back guarantee Call of Duty
00:02:45
Black Ops 6 was the bestselling game of
00:02:47
2024 per Microsoft it delivered the
00:02:50
franchise's biggest launch ever it had
00:02:52
record day one players it had
00:02:53
substantial Game Pass growth but also in
00:02:55
Steam and Playstation unit sales were up
00:02:57
60% year-over-year
00:02:59
and I'm not embarrassed to say that I
00:03:02
was one of those sales and I didn't buy
00:03:04
the previous game I'm part of why those
00:03:06
sales were up 60% and that's because
00:03:09
actually it's a bloody good game
00:03:12
seriously the campaign's one of the best
00:03:14
ones in years I had a lot of fun in the
00:03:16
multiplayer but if I go anywhere near it
00:03:18
now it's all them garish Brands and
00:03:20
Insanity that just kind of makes me go
00:03:22
what it is more though is a test bad a
00:03:24
task bad that fully justifies the
00:03:26
renewed wave of calls for core
00:03:28
multiplayer to become a free-to-play
00:03:30
experience matching war zone because
00:03:32
when you play it a full $70 game it
00:03:36
feels honestly worse than many freeto
00:03:39
plays and nothing makes it feel cheaper
00:03:42
than this new tactic their new tactic is
00:03:45
designed to funnel you from death to
00:03:46
store but before that you need to learn
00:03:49
about a patent because this patent at
00:03:52
the time raised eyebrows it's horrible
00:03:54
and knowing that it
00:03:56
exists yeah makes me think about the
00:03:59
future of this so here's what the patent
00:04:01
does in their own words Quote Match a
00:04:03
more expert slm Marquee player with a
00:04:06
junior player to encourage the junior
00:04:08
player to make game related purchases of
00:04:10
items possessed SL used by the Marquee
00:04:12
player the idea here is really simple
00:04:14
it's that matchmaking would pair players
00:04:16
with no Cosmetics against players with
00:04:18
loads of Cosmetics to entice purchases
00:04:21
of course if you know anything about
00:04:22
matchmaking that's um not going to be
00:04:24
good for game quality now I must be
00:04:26
clear there is no evidence that this has
00:04:28
been implemented right no evidence but
00:04:30
it is something they' thought of it's
00:04:32
perhaps in the back pocket and with that
00:04:34
in mind let's talk about the new change
00:04:37
whenever someone kills you in Call of
00:04:38
Duty of course you get a killcam the
00:04:40
killcam now displays a prompt a prompt
00:04:43
to wishlist the Cosmetic blueprint of
00:04:45
the weapon that just ended your life it
00:04:48
is a direct pipeline to the in-game
00:04:51
store and it's one that exists in a
00:04:52
world where they've already designed a
00:04:54
matchmaking system that if implemented
00:04:57
would complement a feature like this
00:04:59
perfect perfectly right lovely stuff and
00:05:02
if you've got a keen memory you may
00:05:04
remember the copy Loadout feature from
00:05:06
the Modern Warfare 2019 beta yeah you
00:05:09
could copy someone's load out that's
00:05:11
just the load out that was a gameplay
00:05:13
oriented feature that was removed before
00:05:15
the actual launch of that game this
00:05:17
though is worse this is wishlisting paid
00:05:19
for premium blueprints now those are
00:05:21
cosmetic but they've also got a
00:05:23
pre-built attachment setup which in many
00:05:26
many cases can circumvent hours upon
00:05:28
hours of grinding I have one real clear
00:05:31
example of that it was the akimbo diates
00:05:33
at a point in Call of Duty Black Ops
00:05:35
Cold War they were absurdly overpowered
00:05:37
and uh funnily enough when a build of
00:05:40
them that was very overpowered that took
00:05:42
hours upon hours upon hours of grinding
00:05:44
to earn existed they uh they published a
00:05:49
a cosmetic blueprint that basically had
00:05:52
the OP build so you could just buy the
00:05:54
OP build right now immediately and use
00:05:57
it that does not feel good and there's a
00:06:00
funny thing The Prompt only appears on
00:06:02
the kill cam the killcam is the very
00:06:04
thing someone will watch if they want to
00:06:06
improve and you know kill the guy
00:06:08
instead of well now being sat watching
00:06:10
The Kill cam of the guy killing them now
00:06:12
what it does is say you can buy the
00:06:14
thing they killed you with the
00:06:16
implication is perhaps you can then um
00:06:19
kill that person and other people with
00:06:21
that thing that you can buy next time
00:06:23
that feels bad but um it's just one part
00:06:26
of what we're going to cover today I
00:06:28
told you this would be a fun video it is
00:06:30
so um yeah it's it's Turtle time few
00:06:33
examples are worse than the Teenage
00:06:34
Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover because
00:06:36
it demands approximately 90 bucks plus
00:06:38
event pass progression to unlock all the
00:06:40
awards so each Turtle costs 20 bucks and
00:06:44
comes with a custom M variant additional
00:06:46
cosmetics and a color matched weapon
00:06:48
blueprint so 90 bucks lot of money but
00:06:51
um of course we do live in a brand
00:06:53
Invasion and that means that we can
00:06:54
compare the turtles' outings in other
00:06:57
games as an example in fortnite all all
00:06:59
four turtles plus their weapons is 32
00:07:02
bucks there you go Tim Sweeney man of
00:07:04
the people Injustice 2 has a $20 pack
00:07:07
that adds all the turtles plus two more
00:07:09
characters now Street Fighter 6 does
00:07:12
Edge Call of Duty out just a little bit
00:07:14
at 100 bucks for all of its turtl but
00:07:17
that's only because they charge for
00:07:18
individual sticker sets which I've got
00:07:20
to imagine a lot of people don't buy but
00:07:22
guess what everyone The Squeeze is
00:07:24
actually worse crossovers have now got
00:07:26
their own separate passes layered on top
00:07:28
of the regular battle Passad it's a
00:07:30
trend that started with the January
00:07:31
squid game crossover now the game's
00:07:33
event pass will offer two footclan ninja
00:07:36
operator skins for free but if you want
00:07:39
Master Splinter you'll need to complete
00:07:42
the entire pass and pay an additional
00:07:45
$10 big happy smiles but that's not all
00:07:48
no it's not all there's the black cell
00:07:51
premium subscription that adds a
00:07:52
cumulative layer to all of this yes
00:07:55
cumulative it incentivizes you to do the
00:07:57
premium upgrade every season with
00:07:59
cumulative rewards and when you've got
00:08:01
that well you get a 10% XP boost that XP
00:08:04
boost of course covers every pass
00:08:06
through to the end of Call of Duty Black
00:08:08
Ops 6 and that does include your event
00:08:11
passes which you'll want to progress so
00:08:13
you get your Turtle stuff and to make
00:08:14
this worse it's it's a yearly model now
00:08:18
last year's Modern Warfare 3 had skins
00:08:20
that did not transfer over to Black Ops
00:08:22
6 I actually didn't know that they only
00:08:25
transferred through to war zone I mean
00:08:27
hey at least your fortnite skins will
00:08:28
stick around for years now what makes it
00:08:31
worse is how this came as a surprise and
00:08:32
it's why it was a surprise to me Modern
00:08:34
Warfare 2 marketed itself in skins
00:08:36
carrying over to Modern Warfare 3 and it
00:08:39
very much seemed that that was like
00:08:40
their overall grand plan because hey
00:08:43
they wanted to sell Cosmetics if they're
00:08:45
doing that they should really make sure
00:08:46
that from CoD game to CoD game not just
00:08:48
war zone you can keep your Cosmetics
00:08:51
well um that expectation did not hold
00:08:53
from Modern Warfare 3 to Black Ops 6 and
00:08:56
that means that right now people will be
00:08:57
buying these skins without knowing if
00:08:59
the next next premium game will even
00:09:00
support them which feels bad but there's
00:09:03
one expectation that is being met it's
00:09:05
not a good one it's that they will
00:09:07
leverage AI to cut costs not exactly to
00:09:10
leverage new technology to be more
00:09:12
efficient oh good things oh no no no
00:09:15
just cheap slot that's what we're
00:09:16
getting you know as a short-term
00:09:18
capitalist as I'm sure you guys are as
00:09:20
well I'm absolutely thrilled that all of
00:09:22
this Revenue maxing is being matched by
00:09:25
uh by cost cutting you know I thought
00:09:27
the long-term shareholder value was the
00:09:29
goal this [ __ ] doesn't seem like
00:09:31
long-term shareholder value to me but
00:09:33
anyway this is where Mr nle comes in
00:09:36
thank you steam steam now has got
00:09:38
disclosure requirements for AI and that
00:09:41
means that Black Ops 6 now admits this
00:09:44
our team uses generative AI tools to
00:09:46
help develop some in-game assets the
00:09:49
community response was pretty much duh
00:09:51
of course now we've seen the terrible
00:09:54
loading screens the miserably composed
00:09:57
art even whole events that just look
00:09:59
like they were shat out of mid Journey
00:10:02
but actually somehow worse reports also
00:10:05
indicate that Activision is mandating
00:10:06
this stuff for artists and that theyve
00:10:08
broken pledges that they made to their
00:10:09
team over how far they would go with AI
00:10:11
stuff now beyond the visuals there's
00:10:14
also voices ah I use mine I I can't wait
00:10:17
to I don't know clone my own voice and
00:10:19
um I don't know put myself out of work I
00:10:22
guess then I can have no purpose
00:10:24
wouldn't that be great H okay so
00:10:27
Activision has confirmed that they are
00:10:28
replacing uh beloved voice actors
00:10:31
because um well they refused to sign the
00:10:33
Screen Actors Guild protections against
00:10:35
AI exploitation a funny little uh shot
00:10:39
uh into into this more of a seasoning
00:10:41
did you know that Bobby cotk is in fact
00:10:45
a union man he is himself a member of
00:10:47
the screen actor's guild because uh he
00:10:50
did have a small role in the film Money
00:10:52
Ball so there you go I suppose with
00:10:54
Bobby being a member of The Guild it's
00:10:55
kind of funny that uh now the company he
00:10:58
ran is not really playing nice with the
00:11:00
guild anyway these are Corners being cut
00:11:03
saving tiny little amounts of money
00:11:04
while delivering a worse product like
00:11:06
our six-fingered Santa and all the
00:11:08
stupid [ __ ] now it seems insane but
00:11:10
I actually do think I know what their
00:11:12
strategy is this is not about shaving
00:11:14
costs now this is about systemically
00:11:17
reducing costs and rearching development
00:11:20
for a long long long into the future
00:11:22
right Call of Duty is guaranteed to turn
00:11:24
a profit that will never really be in
00:11:26
doubt unless something really spicy
00:11:29
happens
00:11:30
but what is now becoming clear is that
00:11:32
your $70 game might get you a good CoD
00:11:35
game at launch providing Activision give
00:11:37
their teams enough time and you know
00:11:39
what with blob 6 I'm happy that I bought
00:11:41
that game I'm happy that I played it I
00:11:43
had a bloody great time that campaign
00:11:46
absolutely
00:11:47
slapped but everything after that launch
00:11:51
will just be a case of what Activision
00:11:54
thinks they can get away with and the
00:11:56
hard truth is that thus far customers
00:11:58
have proved their strategy right and
00:12:00
they are seeing more and more success
00:12:02
the grandest point of the video is this
00:12:04
Activision's big Advantage is they know
00:12:06
that no matter how angry people become
00:12:08
they'll have a fresh start every 12
00:12:10
months I skipped Modern Warfare 3
00:12:12
because it seemed like an absolutely
00:12:14
Shameless shat out and notime thing and
00:12:17
the campaign certainly did seem to be
00:12:18
that Lop 6 didn't look like that I
00:12:21
bought it I played it I had a great time
00:12:24
and does that mean I'm part of the
00:12:25
problem technically yes don't to worry
00:12:28
I'm not going to buy bull later on but
00:12:29
in a way that is the point if the
00:12:31
multiplayer is not performing to player
00:12:33
expectations Treyarch Infinity Ward or
00:12:35
Sledgehammer will soon get another
00:12:37
attempt Black Ops 6 has actually seen
00:12:39
some of the fastest drop offs in Steam
00:12:41
player counts for the franchise that
00:12:43
doesn't necessarily spell Doom maybe it
00:12:46
just means they had a very successful
00:12:48
launch Spike maybe it just means the
00:12:50
remaining players will be squeezed
00:12:52
harder but no matter what there'll be
00:12:54
another Black Ops soon there'll be
00:12:55
another Modern Warfare soon and that
00:12:57
will be another chance so yeah if the
00:12:59
Modern Warfare 3 campaign disappointed
00:13:02
that's fine people loved blop 6 for the
00:13:04
story All Is Forgiven at least that's
00:13:06
the thing they count on each new release
00:13:08
is a massive infusion of new players who
00:13:11
can be targeted with fresh marketing
00:13:13
that means lots of new revenue and
00:13:15
Activision trying new experiments like
00:13:18
with the killcam wish lists and the
00:13:19
expensive licensed skins and when these
00:13:22
experiments work they then become
00:13:24
permanent game features in the
00:13:25
monetization model we have seen this
00:13:27
happen when they fail while they get
00:13:29
valuable data that is worked into the
00:13:31
next iteration of the game they can
00:13:33
build a battle pass layer black cell on
00:13:36
top and then they can incentivize
00:13:37
adoption by making repeat purchases the
00:13:40
most efficient progression path just
00:13:42
look at what they've done with black
00:13:43
cell and as much as that makes people
00:13:44
angry whenever there's a new cod season
00:13:46
you will reliably see black cell
00:13:49
climbing way up the steam sales chart
00:13:52
because the steam sales chart is by a
00:13:54
gross revenue and a lot of [ __ ]
00:13:56
buy it every year Activision knows that
00:13:58
lose players because of apathy and
00:14:00
frustration with the life service model
00:14:02
but unlike other games that then have
00:14:04
got to fight to win disenchanted people
00:14:07
back in the same game Activision gets to
00:14:10
say hey last time we put Ronald Reagan
00:14:14
in the marketing this time there's samam
00:14:16
there's Maggie Thatcher there's cool new
00:14:19
things if I don't know you can you can
00:14:22
live out your neocon fantasies and I I
00:14:25
don't know then I go and buy blob 6 lamu
00:14:29
that's kind of the point right they got
00:14:31
a fresh wash of everything and the sad
00:14:34
fact is that per the numbers it will
00:14:36
work it does work what happened to X
00:14:39
defiant what's happened to anything else
00:14:42
that has tried to pull off a Call of
00:14:43
Duty and fight Call of Duty on its own
00:14:46
grounds people have popped in for a bit
00:14:48
and they've pissed off because yeah it's
00:14:49
not Call of Duty and that's the problem
00:14:52
anything trying to be Call of Duty is I
00:14:55
don't know it's it's like your own
00:14:57
version of coke people have Coke they
00:14:59
know what Coke is even if the Coca-Cola
00:15:01
Company pisses them off they want a nice
00:15:03
Coke don't worry I'm drinking a Dr
00:15:05
Pepper it's probably the coke company
00:15:07
who knows anyway the point here is these
00:15:10
things are not really going to get
00:15:11
better people have tried to disrupt the
00:15:13
shooter space and audiences haven't
00:15:16
really moved over because basically
00:15:19
nobody really does cod like cod and
00:15:22
people are not willing to try something
00:15:23
else properly and that means that as
00:15:25
development teams are cutting Corners
00:15:27
with generative AI to Maxim output at
00:15:29
minimal cost and we're seeing worse and
00:15:32
worse [ __ ] in our games well just keep
00:15:34
in mind these games sell tens of
00:15:37
millions of copies so even though maybe
00:15:40
there's this video and you've thought GH
00:15:42
don't think I'll buy the next card these
00:15:44
games sell tens of millions who will
00:15:46
even remember these frustrations
00:15:48
whenever black ops 7 launches in
00:15:51
2025 whenever Frank Woods is back again
00:15:54
and you can go and have a little
00:15:56
Adventure or Russell Adler is back and I
00:15:58
can think wow Russell Adler you're so
00:16:01
cool it's the sad power of brand of
00:16:04
marketing right or if it's Modern
00:16:06
Warfare 4 in 2026 any anger that's
00:16:08
floating around the place realistically
00:16:10
is just going to be destroyed by Captain
00:16:12
Price because he's Captain Price and uh
00:16:15
we all have little Captain Price
00:16:16
brainworms in US H Yeah It's Tricky
00:16:20
isn't it I guess the question is not
00:16:22
whether Activision will push further
00:16:25
it's how much will they have to push
00:16:27
before people on on mass will vote with
00:16:31
their wallet we know infinite Warfare
00:16:32
struggled we know ghosts struggled but
00:16:35
those struggled because of overall
00:16:37
positioning fantasy and that sort of
00:16:39
thing not necessarily tactics found
00:16:41
within and thus far I'm struggling to
00:16:43
see cases where the tactics found within
00:16:45
for monetization are truly moving the
00:16:49
needle in a way that uh won't to them be
00:16:52
anything more than a mere rounding error
00:16:55
I know it sounds a bit Grim but hey at
00:16:57
least we had fun as we sort of traed
00:16:59
around this um horrible nightmare mind
00:17:02
maze in a way you could say that it's in
00:17:04
fact Ludo narrative resonance Treyarch
00:17:06
absolutely love to have multi-layered
00:17:09
mindbending timy wiy wibbly wobbly
00:17:11
[ __ ] in their games and I guess well
00:17:13
now the monetization finally matches
00:17:16
fantastic have an awesome day for more
00:17:18
entertainment watch this one next
