For the first time in the history of Call of Duty, Activision is giving all players a whole week of free trial with full access to the Black Ops 6 campaign, as well as the multiplayer and Zombies modes.
he period when you can try the game for absolutely zero dollars is from October 9th to October 16th. This is very generous of the Call of Duty makers to allow the gamers to enjoy the game in every way and still not have to pay a single penny because, in that way, they have made the game available to the public without the patrons feeling any pressure to purchase the entire version.
The situation is such that it is going to be a huge shake-up. Normally, Call of Duty free trials come with only multiplayer access being limited or maybe just one or two zombie modes. But giving the whole campaign to the players might be too much, absolutely unthinkable. This is the time when Activision may indeed be worried about competitors or they may just have so much confidence in their product that they make the entire experience available to people at no cost.
Also, it is clear that positioning has been thought of well. The beginning of the trial on October 9th means that gameplay takes place during the peak fall video gaming season. Some commenters even ventured to talk about the potential battlefront with one commenter, Paツ🇨🇵🇨🇵, Babbling in straightforward terms that “Activision is afraid of battlefield 6 bahahahaha” accompanied by a laughing emoji. Another comment from Lorenzo Maria, who is just closing the issue with “Omg this is FEAR 😂”, is just the way some people are interpreting the act.
It’s up to you to decide: Is this fear, or is it a smart marketing strategy? Let’s break this down and see if they are really worried about losing mature players or they simply want to grow the player base by significant numbers until the following year.
In the past, the trail-blazer free trials for Call of Duty that were offered by the game makers had been a bit harsh. It was perhaps only a few multiplayer maps that you could play, leveling up very little, then that’s it. However, the story mode has always been the luxury of the paying player since the only way to it is through the campaign that you have to buy. Therefore, by giving the whole campaign to the audience, Activision is doing much more than just showing them the tip of the game’s iceberg.
One of the most popular media for expressing opinions, the comments section of the announcement, was swamped with a lot of arguments, and disagreements, and misunderstandings, all mixed up, of course, – while some gamers were already planning the day they would try before they would buy, others were organizing their inner rejection of the franchise by also letting the world know their comments that somehow remain unacknowledged. User DissTrackted could not help but put it this way: “Watch people spend $100 over playing this garbage for free. I’d rather shit in my hands and clap than support this franchise ever again. 💩 👏 Good riddance.” Oh, that was like a punch in the gut.
On the other hand, Shadow bluntly called the company’s move a “Hard hard pass,” which echoed Kyle Gunner’s “Oh God ew” comment that was drawn from the old memories. The public relations aspect of Call of Duty is slowly turning around thanks to a return to the classic favorite – yet one that is still not without the most hardcore of critics, mind you – but, among all the pros and cons, the company is very vocal when it comes to hearing opinions and the like.
All the same, one has to say that, when looking from the consumer’s point of view, this is undeniably a smart move against all expectations. Imagine this: you can play through the whole campaign, try the multiplayer, and be part of the Zombies mode without paying for it. The game might turn out to be a good one, and apart from that, there may be some gamers who were once on the fence about the game changing their minds. However, in the event that it is not, get yourself a sigh of relief for not having wasted your $.
At the same time, the company was taking the highroad during the holiday season by releasing such an announcement. The Fall, which in the case of this event was October, will mean that players can use the game time to evaluate the game, think about whether they will get it or not, and then potentially ask for it as a gift or make a Black Friday purchase. The move is very smart as this could mean that through the consumers beginning to buy the game during the Holiday season, sales may end and start to be equal to those of the peak season by the end of the same year.
If we were to put it in a bigger context, this move could mark the beginning of a change in the way major publishers approach game demos and trials through their flagship games. Over a period of time, it has been found that the use of demos by the game publishers has been decreasing and, in general, they are just relying on the market buzz to promote, instead of letting the players try the games personally. In the case where the free trial of Black Ops 6 game turns out to be successful, then other hit games are likely to follow suit.
However, the campaign mode is definitely the most expensive part in terms of development, and through this demonstration of either confidence or apprehension about the audience reception the game is making a very strong statement.
There were a few comments that were quite derogatory towards the game and went to the extent of calling it “utter shit” at its core although one of them did say that it was not that bad after all stating: “at least bo6 has some type of substance even tho the game at its core is utter shit.” Well, the thing is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure so we all might as well give it a try ourselves when it’s free for a week and then pass our own judgment. The game is also available on PlayStation and Xbox platforms for those interested.
