Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has already suffered a massive price drop, reducing to only $35 at GameStop just about a month after its release, which means the latest game’s sharing of the long-running franchise difficulties and it has also provoked mixed reactions from the gaming community.

Here is the situation. It usually means that the new Call of Duty game has the $70 price tag for a long time and the less powerful modes of celebration would not even be the case with Christmas sellers; and it is still the same game, that’s why people are queuing up, and you get the picture! But here we are not talking about this particular case. GameStop was the first outlet to report the price drop and they sold the game for $35. This is a little above half the price for a game that has just been released. That’s… not the usual practice in the industry. And what is the online opinion? Let’s say it reflects various moods.

The original tweet from charlieINTEL only contained the link and the price, but what about the replies? They are the real thing. It’s a battlefield of opinions, and unfortunately, not the good kind.

There are two opposing camps: one, the pro-price-cut. User giggityguiles aptly summarizes the situation: “Even GameStop is begging people to buy it. That’s hysterical.” The image of such a big retailer almost begging for sales is very strong. Another user, Revy, mentioned how this discount is taking the spotlight away from the Best Buy deal and jokingly remarked, “Wow, they went even lower than Best Buy’s $40, but at least that was with a free steelbook which I always like 😂.” So, in effect, it’s a battle over the lowest price.

Over on the other side, however, all that is heard is total and honest hatred. Posts like “Wont even take it for free🤮” by noobsmokes and “Free would be too expensive for this garbage” by real_EL_Hefe create a very bleak landscape. User DiscordLOC_YT expressed it bluntly: “i don’t care about this franchise i found this years game dissapointing and nothing like this sale will make me want to buy it.” Ouch. One of the points made in the comments is that the sale price is still too high, with wadeington simply stating, “Still too much.”

The debate then commences, as that is what usually happens on the internet. One of the threads goes deep into the gameplay issues. User uaea7mdd complains about high ping and skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), “every cod my kd is like 3-4 kd everything is wrong with this game… now its sweatfest plus with the sbmm i dont play on my 10ping it reaches 100ms.” This then leads to other players blaming either their internet or their skill level, thus it is the classic “it’s the game’s fault” versus “git gud” debate, but with extra salt.

Some inter-franchise battles are even appearing. Someone inquires, “Why can’t they do this to bf6” while another one insults even more by replying: “Cod now is for autistic adhd kids.” Ouch. The discussion is far from being gentle.

What did I say? Oh yes, the price. Such a quick decrease in value is an unmistakable sign of trouble; seldom does a game get a price cut this steep and so fast. And then consumers will think of the instance of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare straight away since it also suffered from a very rapid price drop. User Sonnex27 even went as far as predicting, “It’s gonna hit $1 like infinite warfare did back in 16.” That may be an exaggeration but the analogy is enlightening. It points to a game that could attract players only for a brief period.

Some gamers prefer to see the positive side. User C50_FC argues that in the long run its being on last-gen consoles will boost its sales, “I think Black ops 7 will end up selling more due to the fact its on last-gen PlayStation and Xbox.” It sounds like a way of buffering when the immediate feedback is so negative.

The practical ones, however, are those who come with user Lhjc_50, who puts things in perspective: “A whole month of game pass or a game that’s gonna be dead soon.” When a new release gets compared to a subscription service, you can be sure that it is in trouble.

What does it all signify? When it comes to a price-cut situation like this, deep and fast, it is rarely a sign of health. It indicates that the retailers are sitting on way too much stock that they cannot sell at the original price. It suggests that a large section of the vocal online audience is not very pleased with the game at all. Be it SBMM, gameplay, or the broader first-person shooter genre fatigue.