Activision And Modern Warfare Remastered

Who knew that something with so much potential could turn into the shining example of corporate greed?

I suppose that it really shouldn’t come as a surprise; it is Activision after all.

I remember the hype surrounding Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Gamers celebrated the break from the WWII era, and I joined in on the cheers. 2007 turned out to be a fantastic year for games, and Modern Warfare was part of my catalog.

I loved Call of Duty 4. I played through the campaign so many times that I had the levels more or less memorized. I loved playing around with the weapons and cheats, and trying to beat my times on the F.N.G. and Mile High Club missions. I invited friends over to my apartment so we could play some splitscreen deathmatch on my 15″ TV, and started lugging my Xbox 360 along to my college bible study group every week so we could play afterwards.

It’s safe to say that I was a fan.

Modern Warfare Remastered Announced!

Fast forward to 2016, to the announcement of a remaster for one of my favorite games from 2007.

Wonderful! Of course, then the caveats starting piling up.

To be able to play Modern Warfare Remastered, you’d need to purchase one of the many, more expensive versions of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The wording of their statements surrounding the availability of Modern Warfare Remastered seemed to indicate that Activision was unwilling to sell the game separately. More on that later.

Then the news of the paid DLC map pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being remastered came up. Evidently, Activision felt that the updated map pack was worth a price hike, and put it up on the market for $15 ($5 more expensive than the original version). Of course, they padded the value a bit by giving buyers 10 “supply drops” for multiplayer, as if that helped cushion the blow.

And in a move that seemed simultaneously baffling and unsurprising, Activision chose to bring Modern Warfare completely into the modern era of gaming, by introducing microtransactions!

Don’t even get me started about the exclusivity agreements.

So It’s Activision Being Activision?

Pretty much. In the effort to try and prop up the sales of their latest version of Call of Duty, Activision went the route of bundling the two concurrently released games together. So instead of being able to just play the game that they wanted to, customers that wanted Modern Warfare Remastered needed to spend $80+ on it. Futhermore, customers couldn’t just buy the Legacy Edition of the game and sell back the Infinite Warfare disk, as Modern Warfare Remastered required the player’s copy of Infinite Warfare to be in the disk tray.

Now, here we are, close to seven months after the release of Modern Warfare Remastered, and leaks surface that a standalone release of the game is imminent. You know, the standalone release that Activision implied would not be happening. Additionally, that standalone release would also have a hefty pricetag of $40.

Then the rumors were confirmed. Of course, you’ll be able to buy a copy of the game on June 27th, as long as you own a PS4. It appears that Sony managed to strike an exclusivity agreement with Activision to lock other platforms out of the game for an indefinite amount of time.

Might want to keep in mind that you’ll still need to pay $15 to get the extra maps after spending $40 to get the game itself.

Seriously, Activision?

It’s as if they don’t want people to want to buy this game. I understand that their reasoning for not selling Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered separately at launch is that they didn’t want to poach sales from their flagship title. However, I would’ve figured that after getting their money’s worth by only giving their customers the option to buy the Legacy Edition, charging a premium price for 10-year old DLC, and trying to gouge consumers with microtransactions, they’d at least release the standalone version of Modern Warfare Remastered with the one DLC pack.

But… That’s apparently too much to expect from a company like Activision.

So you know how I’m going to celebrate finally being able to buy a remastered version of my favorite Call of Duty game? I’m going to wait until I can find a copy available on the Xbox One, because screw timed-exclusivity; it’ll be a used copy, because Activision doesn’t deserve my money; and I’m going to pay $10 for it max, but only because I’m a tightwad.

The only other thing I have to say is: Thank you, Activision. Thank you for showing gamers everywhere what the epitome of greed looks like in the gaming industry.

What are your thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered? Let’s here it!

Header Image Source: Activision’s Press Release Kit

Not taking chances with copyright. Activision is trigger-happy with that sort of thing.

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