Call of Duty 21: Black Ops 6's pay-to-hear functionality leads an ear-drumming march to peak monetisation

The series' first operation under Microsoft's purview attempts to coerce players into furthering their investment.

Per Embody, the organisation enlisted to deliver personalised spatial audio to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, “The truth lies … your ears don’t.” Aside from echoing the vague slogan of Treyarch’s sixth iteration upon their venerable exercise in covert carnage, the implication is that you can only trust in your ears for the objective truth. Thus, when you read their copy justifying a payment of $20 to further the audio faculties of the game, you cannot possibly believe their spin with your own eyes. Embody’s Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) assesses the shape of one’s head and ears to tailor each experience with bespoke precision; the audio profile of the game is in conversation with your physical means of listening. Aside from serving as worthy Defence Force training, this function promises to elevate player immersion within competitive spaces.

Black Ops 6 introduces omnidirectional movement to the series, making you feel like a hard-boiled John Woo protagonist.

Yes, this is a rather niche concept. Firstly, it is designed for players who predominantly use headsets for their play. Secondly, it is marketed to an audience who take multiplayer rather seriously - perhaps for the purposes of eSports, streaming, or a general drive to cultivate a sound K/D ratio. However, the deliberate sequestering of a feature, driven by a third-party contract, further protracts player autonomy to a dire end. The impermanence of Call of Duty is known, despite of the implementation of a universal launcher linking their annual instalments with their perpetual Warzone. Additionally, we already know what the 2025 rendition of the series will be: Black Ops 7. Consequently, the question of why one would spend $20 on a feature that should be freely accessible may be resolved rather simply: it’s an extension of Call of Duty’s subscription-centric future.

Since’s Activision-Blizzard-Candy Crush’s acquisition by Microsoft, the role of Call of Duty within their portfolio has become a point of contention. To satiate anti-trust suspicion, Xbox penned ten-year deals with Nintendo and PlayStation to allow the series to publish on their platforms - though it would appear on their Games Pass service day-one. Therefore, whereas players on the former two systems would have to pay both an entry fee and their own online subscription, the latter and its PC kin would require little else than a Games Pass membership. Evidently, Xbox have identified the potential for growth within their proprietary platform and the PC market. Furthermore, as the series continues to feature on last-generation platforms, their underpowered Series S may become a worthy point of entry for those particularly relegated to the PlayStation 4; $299 for a next-gen platform is a pretty solid deal, if against the wishes of developers. Conversely, players may not even need hardware: they can stream the game to their phones. I dare say this demographic would not pay extra for sound quality.

xCloud’s potential has put its thumb on the scale of Xbox’s expansion ambitions.

Gradually decentralising Call of Duty from its physical origin may resolve its dire file size. Presently, the game itself uses a texture streaming system to reduce download sizes, settling older content into a cachet that lies dormant until requested. Indeed, the series’ future is in lean, direct-to-player measures of engagement. By 2023, Call of Duty Mobile cultivated $3 billion in revenue alone; over half of the franchise’s monthly playerbase of 90 million engage with the series through this title. Their decision to partner with Embody to reserve advanced audio for a premium audience is a commercial calculation. The series is essentially powered by portable, flexible measures of play, driven by smartphones: hardcore players with advanced hardware will indeed pay this fee, adjusting for their lesser revenue against the burgeoning mobile market. Upon considering the presence of their battle pass model and suite of skins, every element of the game has been monetised. The annual release structure now works in tandem with an integrated subscription model, blurring platform allegiances; it could be the plot of a future Black Ops: Corporate Warfare title.