Black Ops II gets $50 DLC pass

Four map pack and Zombie expansions for upcoming Call of Duty included with season pass; all DLC to again release for Xbox 360 first; Call of Duty: Elite becoming free.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be the latest game to offer a downloadable content season pass. Activision announced a $50 Black Ops II DLC pass today that includes four expansions. These will arrive first on Xbox Live and will also be available for standalone purchase at $15 each.

Activision did not offer much in the way of specifics regarding DLC for Black Ops II, but did say that they will take the form of multiplayer maps and Zombies content. These offerings are expected to be made available beginning in 2013.

The Black Ops II season pass was announced only for Xbox 360. It is unclear if it will also be offered for PlayStation 3, PC, or Wii U. Activision's announcement today stated, "Season Pass and DLC Map Packs may not be available on all gaming platforms."

Additionally, Activision announced today that all features for its Call of Duty: Elite social service for Black Ops II will be free. Elite launched with Modern Warfare 3 last year and carried a $50 yearly price tag. A paid subscription to the service granted gamers a host of downloadable content delivered every month.

The Call of Duty: Elite platform for Black Ops II will boast a number of revisions to existing features as well as new offerings altogether. Some of these include a dedicated Zombies channel where players can track their personal statistics and tablet support for Call of Duty: Elite TV, which will feature developer tips, among other things.

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He lives in Connecticut, works out of the company's New York City office, and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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TacticaI 108 pts

The majority of the industry believes we're growing money trees in our backyards, don't they? I feel terrible saying this, but keep going down this road, and gaming just isn't going to be worth it. Hell, nowadays, I don't own any more than two (brand new) games at a time (no DLC included). Honestly, over $100 for a video game in its entirety? You have got to be shitting me. There is no justification. (Okay, I'll make one exception, a BAD ASS limited/collector's edition). I truly fear for the next-gen and what schemes they've drawn up to make damn sure we all end up paying $15-$50 for map packs and other 'additional content'. Next thing you know, our video games will come with a crap ton of fine-print and the language will change from "Season Pass" to "Subscription".

radcrab123 76 pts

so let me get this straight i paid 50 $ for Elite and now they make it free then they say theres going to be a 50$ season pass i thought it was good that they made elite free until i realized one thing that their gonna do:they make it free which means it will not let you get free DLCS.So now they want me to get a season pass that cost 50 more dollars when i already got Elite thinking it would be good for BLOPS2 and so im paying 160 $?!?! OMG I got elite and it was a total waste of money i want my money back but their not going to give me it back cause their CoD Yep im hopping on the boycott train if they dont chane this goodbye CoD Forever*Sigh* a awsome franchise has turned into a money hog.

MrHatnClogs 153 pts

To the people who organized the ME3 protest, can we get the ball going on Activision? This is so wrong and so many levels.

jsmoke03 181 pts

cod fans will still eat this up. i'm not liking the direction black ops 2 took but i'm pretty sure i'll pick it up

Slinqy 102 pts

As long as the multiplayers dlc is separate from the zombie dlc, I might consider additional zombie content.

banana23man 166 pts

Black Ops 2 DLC: For people that have more money than sense

hereatlast89 6 pts

Sleeping Dogs

FIFA 13

Dishonored

XCOM...

And so many more to come...

WHY THE FRAKATTA WOULD SOMEBODY BUY THIS SHIT!!!

As a gamer, they are zombies to me AND because of them we have to pay as other companies gets jealous too of their laziness to profit ratio.

GAAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG!!!!!!!

necronomicon_02 16 pts

All i can say is... Moooooooooooooo....

jorge69696 156 pts

People that bought Elite got ripped off?

*chuckle*

ps... fffft... prfff AAAGAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

BludshedX 227 pts

I was actually set on getting BO2 but this news just pushed me over into boycott territory. Can't justify paying the price of 2 games for one. Nice scam, Activision.

mimsoo 13 pts

 HiImUPSMan You do. And it will break sales record, just like the previous ones.

UWantFryzWitDat 9 pts

 mimsoo  HiImUPSMan 

It won't break records.  Pre order sales are way down because of last year's failure.

justin01 26 pts

I didn't buy any map packs for the first blops, skipped out entirely on the last mw, and am thinking about passing this one up as well. Damn they are some greedy motherfuckers. If all four packs together were 15$, then maybe, but I still prefer extra maps free!

mdparkhurst 19 pts

That is so F'ed up, so people got screwed believing that they were covered  for all CoD games in the future.  

mdparkhurst 19 pts

I should say that they believed that as long as they stayed Elite members they were covered

thorwolfe 9 pts

So basically buying Elite now is pointless if I wanted to play the new maps in MW3 before Black Ops is released? What happens to all the poor saps that just bought Elite thinking this same thing?

---Cipher--- 256 pts

@thorwolfe Well...you answered your own question. They are poor saps that got ripped off. BUT elite members still get those other cool features... Like replays or whatever it was.

Vodoo 582 pts

I'm ok with games offering POST-launch content for a price, as long as it's good content, worth the extra money, and wasn't stripped away from the original game to sell as dlc. 

 

The problem I have with CoD and Battlefield is the price. $15 for a map pack is ridiculous! And being these are mass-market games, the casuals will keep shelling out no matter how much it costs. Voting with your wallet is almost pointless for games like these because there's sooo many casual gamers that don't have principles when it comes to stuff like this. So unfortunately there's really not much we, as gamers, can do about this type of price-gauging.

Hurvl 196 pts

As long as you play the games you like and like the games you play, there is no need to feel sorry. These kind of products sell, it's a fact, and it won't matter if a few people don't buy it, not even if the amount of people are Over 9000!!! Voting with your wallet only effects yourself, but it's your money and your time and what other people choose to spend money and time on won't reduce your joy of gaming.

LE5LO 88 pts

I assume everyone here (myself included) is on the boycott wagon?

---Cipher--- 256 pts

@LE5LO Yep. I'm donating the same amount of money ($110) to charity on release day.

GreG975 11 pts

 LE5LO I already did for the BF3 Premium shit. :)

Raisiine 25 pts

 GreG975  LE5LO Yeah I dont like the policy here either, but as it is, Battlefield 3 is a good game to play.

cejay0813 60 pts

 Raisiine  GreG975  LE5LOAt least Battlefield tossed in some new guns to play around with.

 
RiKanKiDD 55 pts

Hopefully CoD Ends after this. If not they might just take it into space.. Here comes the controversy

dreamfist11 326 pts

 RiKanKiDD Man, if this shit sells anywhere near the last few CODs then they definitely wont stop there

Harrydapro 70 pts

 dreamfist11  RiKanKiDD As long as there are 9 year old children, COD will live.

Devil_wings00 15 pts

 RiKanKiDD Blops 2 has record pre-orders from a few articles I've seen. So ya CoD isn't going anywhere soon. Blops 2 would have to be a catastrophic disaster to cause CoD to disappear by this time next year.

Devil_wings00 15 pts

I'm not a DLC hater. I grew up in the era of expansion packs that cost 30-40 bucks and sometimes offered next to nothing. I'm glad I can pick and choose content for games I enjoy but damn this is just ridiculous. 110 bucks to get the full game experience? REALLY? I know you don't have to buy this and you still can pick and choose but if people start buying enough of these how long until that disappears and we are forced to pay a flat fee for all additional content?

Tsuchikage 323 pts

Well, this is easily the most expensive season pass yet.  Unfortunately, I think it's going to sell like hotcakes (delicious, delicious hotcakes) and inspire other publishers to make expensive DLC passes like this.

Vodoo 582 pts

 Tsuchikage This is a SEASON pass, not the regular online pass that's usually $10. CoD had the same $50 season pass for MW3.

dreamfist11 326 pts

This shit is ridiculous, they did this shit with BF3, its so retarded that we pay $60 for a game, and then another $50 to get the other "half" of the game.  So $110 for a full fucking game, so fucking stupid.

LE5LO 88 pts

 dreamfist11 100% agree, to the guns running the company they must think it's diabolically clever and will rake in the money, but to the majority of us gamers they're taking full advantage of it just screams out "IT'S BOYCOTT TIME!!!"

Devil_wings00 15 pts

 LE5LO  dreamfist11 Boycott is pointless this game has already shattered pre-order records. Anything you scream about will be drowned out by the millions of CoD fans screaming homophobic obscenities.

dreamfist11 326 pts

 Devil_wings00  LE5LO We need to get together as gamers and consumers and start boycotting games with these season passes until things get a bit better

Superzone 409 pts

 dreamfist11 Sadly tons of people will still pay for this ripoff DLC, so they're going to keep making it.  Until people grow a brain and start realizing they're getting punk'd, this trend will continue.

thorwolfe 9 pts

 dreamfist11 They will give you the whole game. The extra 50$ is actually reasonable. 4 DLC for $12.50 each or 15$ each if you would rather pay more for something you will end up getting anyways. I don't remember DLC being much cheaper since the first MW (10$ each I think but its been awhile). Most likely it will be 4 DLC which will be around 1 zombie and 3-5 multiplayer maps in each. So 4 zombie maps and 12-20 multiplayer maps. The game itself probably has around 1-2 zombie maps and 12-15 multiplayer maps. It would be awesome if DLC was cheaper, but that will never happen. Not until the game industry starts hating money.

dreamfist11 326 pts

 thorwolfe The extra $50 is not reasonable, $10 more and you got a whole game.  I believe battlefield 3 came with 5 maps, they will have over 10 maps in dlc, so they are either not giving us enough content upfront or they are saving it for later.  Seriously, when the "add ons" cost almost as much as the game you gotta realize somethings off

Uruca 49 pts

You want to know what is most sad in all of this?

Is going to sell like cupcakes.

harold317 93 pts

Wow people, you keep buying CoD, you deserve this. I'm glad I never really got into this silly FPS fad. And even if I did, I would never support this kind of bullshit.

Spartan_418 1039 pts

 harold317 look out, we got a (pretentious) badass over here!

dreamfist11 326 pts

 Spartan_418  harold317 He may sound a little arrogant, but its true, EA said BF Premium sold so well that they will implement it in other games. 

Raisiine 25 pts

 dreamfist11  Spartan_418  harold317 But how else are you gonna play the game to its full potential. I dont care about the shitty videos and artwork they make or none of that crap, but I do wanna play all the upcoming expansions of Battlefield 3. And you get all 5 for like 50 euros, whereas if you bought all of them seperately, you 'd end up paying 15 for each.. I dont really like the policy here(having to pay twice for a single game), but it is still the better way. I dont have premium yet, but I think I'll get it once Aftermath is out.

Hurvl 196 pts

 Raisiine  Even when I didn't have a backlog that will take years to go through, I didn't buy games close to release, but rather a few months or a year after (if I wasn't super excited about it), though that was in like 2006. I'm strictly a singleplayer guy and the games didn't get worse because I waited that time. It was often quite the opposite what with the patches and mods getting done in between. For a multiplayer game it's a different thing, but if you don't want to spend time waiting, you have to spend money. They've set it up nicely, don't you agree?

TacticaI 108 pts

 harold317 Really? This is unequivocally the longest fad I've ever heard of. 

PSYCHOV3N0M 91 pts

I'll just wait 9-12 months for the Season pass to be 50% off during an Xbox Live Deal Of The Week thanks...

Bangerman15 66 pts

they wouldnt be charging 50 dollars for freakn maps if people didnt buy it, idk why people pay for 2 games just for one game and some maps that should be free to begin with.  Oh well that's why I play PC games for my fix, some of the user made levels on certain games smoke the crap devs charge for

Hurvl 196 pts

 Bangerman15 Not to feed fuel on the console vs PC war, but mods are really the best thing to counter expensive DLC packs if you want more stuff to play with, but think the official content is too pricey.

AyatollaofRnR 131 pts

Keeping up with COD just got expensive. They need to include elite in the season pass to make it a good deal for COD fans. 

 

Personally I'm concerned that expensive season passes will become the norm. Unless the $50 includes substantial content and not just map or car packs, then its too much. Really they are just canabalising sales anyway. If I buy a season pass that is probably one less game I buy. 

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