by theygamesDespite the endless barrage of new store bundles, premium tracks for seasonal battle passes, and the doubly-premium BlackCell cosmetics, there’s already a lot to spend your money on in Black Ops 6 – and of course its free-to-play counterpart Warzone. With the imminent Black Ops 6 Squid Game event, Call of Duty is adding yet another new monetization avenue thanks to a premium track of rewards themed around the Netflix hit. After pressure from community figureheads, Activision has now revealed the price of its premium Squid Game event pass, and while it’s not as scary a number as many had feared, it costs the same as a seasonal battle pass which represents much better value.
Following weeks of teasers, full details of the new Squid Game event in Black Ops 6 have now been revealed. With multiplayer game modes themed on the series’ deathly challenges, a Red Light, Green Light twist in Zombies, and bespoke challenges in Warzone matches, there’s a lot going on in this crossover. There’s also plenty of Squid Game-themed bundles in the FPS game’s store as well.
One of the big draws though is the event pass, which lets you earn a new melee weapon called the Cleaver, operator skins, and more. Usually with these kinds of in-season events, all rewards are unlocked for free through gameplay – either by completing challenges individually or as a community. However, the Squid Game event includes a premium rewards track that locks a brand new operator, weapon blueprints, and more behind an additional charge.
When today’s new blog post about the event first went live, there was no mention of how much this premium track would cost. However, after some pressure from Call of Duty fans, it was updated. Activision has confirmed that the Black Ops 6 Squid Game premium event pass will cost 1,100 COD Points, which are valued at $9.99/ £8.39.
This is the same price as a seasonal premium battle pass, which contains considerably more rewards, gives you the chance to earn back the COD Points you spent, and gives you a much longer window in which you can grind to complete it all. The graphic below shows some of the premium Squid Game rewards, and while I’m not 100% sure if that really is all that’s on offer or if there are a few more rewards that you’ll be able to earn, what’s certain is that it’s just not as good value as a seasonal battle pass.
For Squid Game fans, there are at least some cool contestant skins to unlock for free, and the price of the premium pass isn’t astronomical – I was extremely worried that it would cost even more than this. But it does feel a bit disappointing that what is essentially a mini battle pass costs the same as a full-sized one, and seemingly doesn’t repay you with any earnable COD Points either. The event only lasts for three weeks, so hopefully progression is generous – a hard grind to unlock all the rewards you already paid for would be another big drawback.
This new monetization method has already attracted some criticism, and given that the price of the premium pass wasn’t initially published, my suspicion is that Activision anticipated a bit of backlash here. Two of the biggest Call of Duty community accounts, ‘CharlieIntel’ and ‘ModernWarzone,’ have both expressed their displeasure with a joint post highlighting the amount of monetization in Black Ops 6 right now – and the continued problems with the game’s anti-cheat.
The Squid Game event in Black Ops 6 and Warzone goes live on Friday, January 3 at 10am PT/ 1pm ET/ 6pm GMT and ends at the same time of day on Friday, January 24.
For more, why not look ahead to the Black Ops 6 Season 2 release date, which should arrive not long after the Squid Game event wraps up. Alternatively, here are some other epic multiplayer games you can play right now.
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