Call Of Duty’s $30 ‘BlackCell’ Battle Pass Is A Stroke Of Genius

There are Battle Passes and then there are Battle Passes. Popularized by Fortnite, the Battle Pass is a way for companies to monetize games-as-service titles, whether free-to-play or paid—or both in the case of Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2, which share a seasonal Battle Pass between them. The former is a pay-to-play game; the latter is free.

Every Battle Pass is different but the general gist of it is simple: For a small price (starting usually around $10) you get access to around 100 tiers of cosmetic items like weapon skins, emotes, loading screens and so forth to customize your game with. You unlock these tiers by playing. Usually some of these tiers are free.

Since the inception of the Battle Pass, you could buy a “premium” version which came with a certain number of tier skips, unlocking the first 20 or 25 all at once, giving players access to even more stuff early on. This was useful if you didn’t play as much and weren’t sure you’d have time to unlock everything. You paid a little bit more—maybe $20 or $25—but you could take the pressure off.

Now, Activision has taken this one step further with a premium luxury Battle Pass called BlackCell. This extra special Battle Pass includes everything that the normal Modern Warfare II / Warzone 2 Battle Pass has plus 20 tier skips as well as:

• 1,1000 COD points (the in-game currency)
• A bunch of extra cosmetics
• A special Operator you can’t get anywhere else
• 12 special BlackCell variants of the normal Battle Pass skins
• Other perks

This is more than just tier skips. You get exclusive cosmetics that you can’t get any other way, including the Atom Operator with his black suit and mask that changes from black to gold and back again. This is capitalizing on both the cool factor and FOMO (fear of missing out) since players have no other way to get these cosmetics (which are guaranteed to be rare) or this special Operator. None of it actually makes the game any easier. None of it is pay-to-win.

But it’s cool. And people clearly want it despite the anger and annoyance the existence of the BlackCell Battle Pass has created on forums and social media. While Modern Warfare II/Warzone 2 are currently the second best-selling game on Steam at the moment, the BlackCell Battle Pass is #3 (as of this writing) according to SteamDB.

Considering you actually get extra content with the BlackCell Battle Pass rather than just tier-skips, it’s actually a better value in a lot of ways. People are quick call out Activision for greed—and yes, video game publishers are in this to make money!—but there’s never any outrage at a premium Battle Pass that costs 2400 COD points (or V-Bucks in Fortnite) despite that costing roughly $24. Here there’s actually extra content, plus COD points included, making it a far better deal, greed or no.

Having a deluxe Battle Pass with extra content for people who want to spend more (or suffer badly from FOMO, like me) allows consumers at different price points to make a choice. People who want to play without paying a dime can still do that, and still unlock the weapons in the Battle Pass just by playing. People who want the Battle Pass but don’t care about the extras can spend some COD points (even using the COD points they earned in the previous season’s Battle Pass). And whales can spend whatever they want. Everybody’s happy. Activision laughs all the way to the bank.

So far, I’m enjoying Season 3 a lot, especially with the return of Gunfight, one of Call of Duty’s best modes. And yes, I bought a BlackCell Battle Pass.