That's Sabotage! First CoD: Infinite Warfare DLC hits PC
Kevin Smith?!
I can't stand it, I know they planned it: the first DLC for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] has arrived on PC, one month after its PlayStation debut. Activision are scheming on an exclusivity deal - that's sabotage. As is the first DLC. 'Sabotage' is its name and new maps is it game. It's the standard CoD DLC deal: four regular multiplayer maps and one new map for the co-op Zombies mode. And as ever, Zombies is where CoD devs get to lark about, this time visiting a zombified rave in a redwood forest in the '90s, with guest star Kevin Smith. Really. Look:
The youth of today. Activision say:
"After escaping the terrifying Zombies in Spaceland, our heroes are transported to an abandoned campground... the perfect site for Willard Wyler's next horror masterpiece. Set in the ‘90s, the four actors find themselves in brand new roles, along with some fresh new threads. Together, they’ll team up to take on endless hordes of raver zombies and the mysterious Slasher, who's on the prowl to add more 'trophies' to his collection. With the help of some brutal new weapons and even director Kevin Smith (!), our heroes just might be able to put an end to the madness in the Redwoods."
As for the regular maps, you've got 'Renaissance' set in Northern Italy, 'Noir' in a futuristic Brooklyn, 'Neon' inside a virtual training centre, then 'Dominion' remakes the classic Modern Warfare map 'Afghan' on Mars.
Infinite Warfare's DLC isn't sold separately on PC, only with all the rest in the season pass for £39.99/49,99€/$49.99. Yup, the season pass costs as much as the game itself. That's a big ask, especially when 2015's Black Ops 3 still has more players than Infinite Warfare (Cod Blops 3 MP is great, after all).
This DLC plan seems so very 2010 - and it was already obnoxious then. Look at Rainbow Six Siege with its steady stream of free new maps and characters, where season passes only buy early access and trinkets. Games like Titanfall 2 and Overwatch get free content updates, selling costumes instead. There's Payday 2, which has DLC maps up the wazoo but lets a whole party play as long as one member owns 'em. And we've so many genuinely great free-to-play PC games with palatable monetisation. Paying an extra £40 for DLC which splits the playerbase seems silly.
I'm not predicting the death of Call of Duty -- it's still megahuge on consoles anyway -- but isn't this due a change?