Unexpectedly, Call of Duty has disclosed a new free trial of multiplayer and zombies for Black Ops 6, which will be active from tomorrow. Nonetheless, the response from the gaming community has been remarkably mixed. Activision hinted at it through social media, inviting the gamers to “grab your squad” for the time of the free access, but the anouncement rather created a doubtful atmosphere than the anticipated universal hype. It resulted in a wave of memes, and some veteran Call of Duty players even showed their utmost fury. Moreover, the free trial comes at a time when the competitors are trying to grab the players’ attention, and this issue is the talk of the day, maybe not in a positive way though.
What’s the actual situation then? Starting tomorrow, players of the game will have free access to the multiplayer and zombies of Black Ops 6. This news should be very exciting, right? One can actually access one of the biggest gaming franchises for free! But the press feedback gives an entirely different impression. Gamers are calling this action “desperate”, “pathetic”, and “sad”, most of them are claiming that it is a direct response to the upcoming release of the Battlefield 6 battle royale mode. One user even posted that “So scared of bf6” along with laughing emojis, another one commented “Daaamn, player count must be low.”
The community’s reaction has been very harsh—almost savage. Just the replies alone feel like they are attending a roast battle. Among the comments, some say that this free trial looks like “panic” from Activision, and players are reminding that this is not the first time that Call of Duty has offered free access during a competitor’s launch window. A user reminisced: “back in bf6 beta Days, CoD dropped 2xp weekend 2 times in a row”, suggesting that this is a case of defensive moves that have turned into a pattern rather than a traffic release that is pirated by the players.
And the gripes keep on coming. The gamers are complaining about all kinds of problems such as matching people’s skills is “cranked to the max”, hackers are ruling the game, and general discontent with the current state of the game. One gamer declared, “The game is trash and filled with hackers. You forced the whole community to switch to Battlefield. Mission accomplished”, Phew! That is some serious frustration right there.
But, is there any hope left to be spotted in the situation? No way! Wait! There is this context that complicates the matter even more. Some of the players are questioning why a free trial of Black Ops 6 is being promoted when it is rumored that a new Call of Duty is about to be released. So, what’s the strategy? A comment inquired, “Why tf are yall doing a free trial on an old game when a new is about to be released?” which… the question is indeed quite fair. It certainly comes across as strange timing if a new installment is just around the corner.
The developers’ predicament continues to be referred to and also scrutinized, with many gamers not wanting to run into “all the hackers” that will be present during the free trial. This issue has been plaguing Call of Duty for quite some time already, and the free access period generally makes things worse as cheaters simply create new accounts as soon as their main one gets banned. “No anticheat in the world can stop every cheat,” one user declared, which, although technically true, does not help in boosting users’ trust.
While all this is happening, some players are still attempting to get the answers to their basic information questions. One individual enquired, “When the new-map in warzone,” but another one doubted if Black Ops 6 had even gotten to the market yet. The communication seems to be more than a little disorganized. Additionally, there are also some random requests thrown in—someone is begging for double battle pass progression to obtain a Predator skin, another one wants clarification about 1v1 modes during the trial. It looks like everyone is discussing completely different games.
However, what is even more fascinating is the split among Call of Duty players. There are those who are quite excited about the free access and say “another one? nice”; while, on the other hand, people are very adamant that they would rather “battle cancer again than play BO6.” That… is extreme, but it also shows how passionate— and frustrated—this player base has.
It appears like Activision is attempting to regain the lost hype while at the same time dealing with various issues among which are: competition from Battlefield, cheating scandals, player depression, and uncertainity about the future of the franchise. Being more liberal than usually with free access absolutly has to create buzz and attract new players, but when the existing community sees it as weakness rather than benevolence, then that’s certainly a problem. The situation affects players across all platforms including PlayStation and Xbox alike.
