Season 3 of Warzone 2 and MW2 changed many aspects of the battle royale and annual instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, including the arrival of widespread weapon adjustments, two new multiplayer maps and much, much more.
Naturally, a large amount of skins, bundles and other cosmetics made their way into both titles. Some, though, provoked a furious backlash from DMZ players when it became clear they offered tangible bonuses in-game. From players receiving a UAV at the start of matches to spawning in with a better backpack, they were quickly denounced as “pay to win”.
Going some way to placate disgruntled players, the April 19 Warzone 2 update brought balancing changes to UAVs, disallowing players from calling them in within the first minute of matches. While undoubtedly an effort from the developers to provide balance to the Roze and Thorn Bundle, the playerbase remains less than impressed.
One Redditor lamented the changes, arguing instead that the bundles that offer in-game benefits should be removed altogether, not balanced.
They said: “Instead of taking the P2W bundle effects out of the game they are trying to “balance” it. Infinity Ward has to be the only studio in the world that introduced P2W mechanics into a non-mobile modern game. This studio has to go and never develop a CoD game ever again.”
Others flooded in to agree, criticizing the bundles’ continued presence in-game and calling on Activision to remove them.
One said: “1 minute is just gonna be enough to let the paying player get in position around a neighbouring spawn, then pop it. I think this is the weakest kind of bandaid”.
Another argued: “This is such an idiotic non-solve for the scourge that is the UAV in DMZ… UAVs are everywhere now and running non-stop.”
Despite the continued backlash, there don’t appear to be any plans for the removal of the new bundles. They do certainly offer a bonus to players using them, making missions easier to complete and enemies easier to identify and eliminate.
There’s sure to be more race to run on this topic but, in the meantime, you can check out our DMZ guides to help you through any mission you need to complete, whether Dealmaker, Zero Tolerance or something else entirely.
