Warzone players call for boycott over Blizzard lawsuit and hacking problems
Warzone players are encouraging all Call of Duty gamers to boycott the purchase of skins and bundles from the store in response to the recent Activision Blizzard lawsuit and constant Warzone hacking.
It’s been an unsettling time for Call of Duty and its respective titles – Warzone, Black Ops Cold War, CoD: Mobile, and Modern Warfare. The ongoing Activision Blizzard lawsuit has impacted the franchise, and fans are calling for fellow players to stop buying goods from the CoD store in protest.
This includes everything from skins to Operator Bundles to even the Seasonal Battle Pass. Warzone players are citing the lawsuit, “empty updates,” and hackers as the driving force behind this movement.
The lawsuit is dealing directly with an “alleged toxic workplace,” and has even lead to a full walkout by employees in response to the unfortunate situation.
Added to this is the purported series of empty updates “full of microtransactions in order to milk the players,” and the ever-increasing threat of hackers, and players have seemingly had enough.
Reddit user Jaszs has lead the charge by saying: “I’m writing this as someone who has played every. single. COD since COD2, and WZ since day 1 until yesterday, and also a former Blizzard fan. Yes, I know it may sound bad, but based on what’s going on (sexual harassment lawsuit, suppressing and abusive treatment of their employees…) I really think those guys don’t deserve anything from us, their customers.
“You can even keep playing the game if you want (there are some cool alternatives though; if you need some just ask in the comments!), just don’t spend any money in their store. In any case, you should also remember that they are the same guys that are releasing empty updates full of microtransactions in order to milk the players, releasing over and over the same game and not giving a single f*ck about the increasing number of hackers.”
The very passionate statement received over 300 comments and counting, and it’s universally in favor of boycotting Activision’s Store ahead of the Warzone Season 5 launch.
Given that there are many responses, here are a selection of replies:
- “I’ve got 900 COD points and level 90 on the battle pass. Not spending a penny more on this game. They don’t respect their employees, they don’t respect the players (anti-cheat lmao) they aren’t getting anymore of my money.”
- “Once all this sh*t came to light, my entire friend group collectively uninstalled the game and swore off of it for good. We were already mad at the game for being poorly managed with hackers and constant glitches/crashes. I suppose this was the lead straw that broke the metaphorical camel’s back.”
- “Based on the way they’ve handled cheating, the CW integration, and the general state of the game in the last year, I’m shocked than any of you have been buying cosmetic items from them. Do you realize what kind of message you’re sending by making the worst CoD their highest-earning one?”
At the time of writing, the post has nearly 1.8K upvotes and rising. Given the player count of Warzone far exceeds this, it’s hard to imagine this boycott would do too much damage.
Conversely, Producer at Sledgehammer Games Alayna Cole has Tweeted an important message concerning the circumstances.
Boycotting the Activision store will have an obvious knock-on effect in terms of sales revenue, and would ultimately disrupt the salaries and jobs of many employees who are not involved in this lawsuit.
It’s a hard position for all involved and for players who engage in Call of Duty games. The lawsuit is still long ongoing, and we’ll continue to update you at Charlie INTEL with any breaking developments.
Image Credit: Activision Blizzard
