Sony, as you know, is the principle marketing partner for the Call of Duty franchise, which means every-so-often Activision must walk a tightrope between not p*ssing off its fanbase while still providing PlayStation with some extras. In the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, it means PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 owners will be the only ones to get access to the new two-player Zombies Onslaught mode.
That’s downright frustrating for fans on other formats, no doubt – but there’s more, and this is where it begins to get a bit embarrassing. If you purchase a Battle Pass on either PlayStation system, you’ll get an additional five tier skips compared to players on other platforms, allowing you to unlock that season’s gear and goodies quicker.
Next, those of you who play in parties on the PS5 or PS4 will earn an additional 25 per cent weapon XP – even if you’re playing alongside cross-platform teammates. And the bonuses don’t end there, because there’ll be exclusive PlayStation Double XP events every month on Sony’s consoles. Oh, and you’ll have an extra two loadout slots to boot.
Some of this stuff reads like it’s really just scraping the bottom of the barrel to us. We understand marketing partnerships are mutually beneficial for both the publisher and the platform holder, but as the industry moves towards unified communities, these bonuses are beginning to look outright embarrassing. Obviously the Zombies Onslaught mode is the big thing here, but the other so-called PlayStation advantages strike us as silly.
