There’s no time like the present. In the case of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 it appears that now was a good time to introduce some brand-new premium costumes into the game. A neat little Fortnite-esque package for fans or, if you’re looking at it more cynically, Activision looking to put their toes in the profitable waters of microtransactions pre-Black Ops 4? You can be the judge of that.

As revealed by YouTuber MalloThaPrince on Twitter, a stack of ‘New Specialist Outfits’ have been included in the game. They offer no strategic advantage, only a cosmetic change.

300 CoD points (roughly $3 or equivalent currency) will get you the chance to own whichever outfit you choose, as long as you win 15 multiplayer games. If you want to skip that noise, you can buy the outfit outright for 600 CoD points ($6).

We can debate the business practices of Activision and Treyarch until the cows come home, but it’s the timing of this that perplexes the most. Could this be a precursor to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and its cosmetic system?

I quite like the discount if you play games but, still, the feeling can’t be shaken that an expected backlash is coming and this is just a testing ground to tweak things before the monetization main event hits in October. I’m sure you all have some thoughts on the topic, so feel free to share below!