Activision and it's Call of Duty developers (Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Trey Arch) have to improve the season pass model in order to prevent players from being divided within the online multiplayer community. To achieve this successfully, they have to look at hugely popular games from other publishers and see what they're doing by offering free downloadable content primarily with new maps that are released.



My first example is from Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Seige and what they've done successfully with their season pass model. Their model offers seven-day exclusive early access to new operators added to the game for each season. Season pass owners can immediately gain access to these characters when they are released without having to spend currency--be it real-world money--to unlock them. These packs will also include new maps, which everyone receives for free. The main things that they charge gamers for are entirely cosmetic items. New characters and most weapon skins/aesthetic items only require 'Renown' points to purchase (with the exception of some items). Players can accumulate Renown by solely playing the game but can boost the process of gaining Renowns by using real-world currency for booster packs.

Even look at Microsoft’s Halo 5 Guardians, they removed their paid season pass completely for this very reason. "When you have paid map packs and content, you divide the player base into two groups: the haves and have-nots," studio head Josh Holmes explained. "The people that have the map pack can play together but the people who don't cannot. That to us is a real problem. So we're delivering all the maps to all players free so everybody will be able to play together. That, we feel, is really important to having a great multiplayer ecosystem." Microsoft gave each of these [maps] away for free to avoid dividing players into groups of those who do and do not own them--something that has increasingly become a problem for shooters over the years.

Electronic Arts and it's Star Wars Battlefront developer DICE have made this transition for Battlefront 2 franchise and Battlefield V will adopt this model as well. Similar to the previous games that were mentioned above, design director Niklas Fegraeus said that giving away DLC maps ensures that everyone can play together. In 2015's Battlefront, EA added numerous maps as paid DLC, and as time rolled out, the community became more and more splintered, leading to player figures falling.

Certainly, this has become a trend and developers have said that they're making maps free to avoid dividing players into groups of those who do and do not own them. This has increasingly become a problem for shooters over the years. Since this free model has worked for big triple-A titles from major publishers/developers like Ubisoft, Microsoft, and EA, I'm urging you Activision (for the greater good) to make this change for your customers and fans of the Call of Duty franchise.



Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope this issue is brought up with everyone within the Activision studios and towards the front office executives. As a gamer, all I want is to be able to play with anyone after I have already purchased a game.