Black Ops 6 players threaten to quit over new microtransaction ads

A new addition to the weapon loadout screen in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 has caused outrage amongst players, as season four gets underway.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 added a bunch of multiplayer maps, modes, weapons, and gameplay tweaks last week, as part of its fourth season, but one particular change has sparked anger amongst players.

After the season four update rolled out on Thursday, May 29, Call Of Duty players have noticed an advertisement promoting premium weapons and skins in the weapon select menu which wasn’t there before.

While the Call Of Duty launcher often carries these kinds of promotions, players are miffed they’ve crossed over into the gameplay itself – especially as Black Ops 6 players have already forked out £69.99 for the full game.

‘One of the unwelcome changes I’ve noticed with season four is that they’ve now inserted a new ad spot at the top of the list of your weapon specific builds,’ Reddit user whambampl writes.

‘So now every time you toggle between weapon builds you get to stare at ads for $20-$30 skins. I’m sure the Activision developer who suggested this terrible feature is very proud of themselves.’

They added: ‘This change is especially unneeded because you could already toggle from Builds to Shop on any given weapon and apparently not being thrown directly in our faces didn’t make them enough money. Many of us paid $60-$100 for a feature game and don’t want to be bombarded with additional ads.’

In a nod to SpongeBob SquarePants, one user replied: ‘Actively witnessing Call Of Duty become the Krusty Krab.’

Other players have vowed to quit playing following this update. ‘This ad mess is ridiculous,’ one user wrote. ‘They make huge bank already for them to even do this should be illegal. I’ve never been done with a COD this fast ever. But she’s getting deleted.’

Another added: ‘I’m so dumbfounded… this seriously makes me want to uninstall based on principle alone! You guys have to be smoking something.’

This issue has been the subject of several threads expressing a similar sentiment. ‘I wouldn’t even be mad if this was just in Warzone, a free game, but putting it in a pay-to-play premium title, with how expensive they’re getting?’ questioned one commenter.

Last month, a report highlighted how Call Of Duty was slowly losing players each year. As of March 2025, Call Of Duty had 20.6 million players, a decline from 20.8 million in March 2024 and 22.4 million in March 2023.

While these are still huge numbers, it’s perhaps a sign that Call Of Duty’s dominance could be at risk if a competitor makes a big enough splash. EA is hoping to do just that with the next Battlefield, which is set to launch sometime before March 2026.

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