‘Black Ops 4’ launches project that helps veterans return to civilian life yet controversy still clings to Activision

“Black Ops 4” released its Call of Duty Endowment package that is aimed at helping vets getting jobs after their service ended and eased that transition back to civilian life. The pack will cost $2.99, and all proceeds will be allocated to the cause, which will end once the project accumulates $1 million.

“Black Ops 4” has partnered with Max Uriarte, a Marine Corps veteran who now works as a writer and artist. The developers tapped Uriarte to spearhead the “Night Raid” PS4 theme and also spoke to him about his time with the military.

When asked to elaborate how he has managed to land the “Black Ops 4” Endowment project, a friend of his from We Are The Mighty connected Uriarte with Activision as the studio needed a veteran artist to do the job. Uriarte, of course, is more than thrilled to have been chosen for the task and said that he'd been a “Call of Duty” fans for years.

Black Ops 4 efforts eclipse by shady business practices

“Not only am I a big ‘Call of Duty’ fan and gamer, but the work the Call of Duty Endowment does is great for the veteran community and I was happy to be involved in any way I could be. I’ve been playing ‘Call of Duty’ for many years,” Uriarte said in the Activision blog. But even with this great gesture, “Black Ops 4” is still facing a lot of controversy due to its questionable marketing practices.

The latest of which came from Youtuber eColiEspresso who tallied the overall price of all the purchasable items within the game and came up with a number that outraged the player base, Dexerto reported. To start off, “Black Ops 4” cost $60. But factoring in all the microtransactions within the game jacks that price up to a mind-numbing $1,324. And that’s not including reserve case purchases, which is essentially loot boxers labeled differently.

Black Ops 4 not expected to change questionable microtransactions

Adding salt to the wound is that these reserves contain some skins that are basically a copy of an already existing outfit, another point of controversy that hit “Black Ops 4” in recent weeks. So while the aforementioned veterans project is a good call for Activision, the company needs to do more than this to earn the trust of thousands of players. But given how Activision has evolved in the years leading up to all these fiascos, there’s little chance that it will change its business practices in the immediate future.