COD HQ ads for Black Ops 6 are way too aggressive

Ever since Black Ops 6 was revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase event, players have been pestered with promotions whenever they launch the Call of Duty HQ. We get it, Activision wants to sell their biggest upcoming offering to existing players, but can't the ads be toned down a bit?

When you boot up the Call of Duty HQ to play Modern Warfare 3 or Warzone, you're immediately presented with Black Ops 6 advertisements, and there are quite a few of these. In the picture above, you can see how much space the Black Ops 6 promotion covers. This is a free marketing technique for the company, but it doesn't have to be right in your face.

I'm not the only one who thinks that this has gone too far; as can be seen in the recent thread above, many players share the sentiment. The new menu design in Call of Duty has already been criticized heavily since Modern Warfare 2 and these promotions make it even more annoying; I have to scroll and click so many times just to reach the game mode I want to play.

Let's say you scroll up to see the message of the day tab; you'll be greeted with Black Ops 6 ads right away. When you go down to the MW3 or Warzone playlists, you'll first have to go past the Black Ops 6 pre-purchase tab. Want to buy a cool bundle from the store? Guess what, why don't you order the upcoming Call of Duty first? Some may argue these are small things, but in my opinion, the ads coming up on my face just as I launch the game ruin the experience.

In defense of the ads in CoD HQ

Another reddit user, CptMeat, contends it makes sense that Black Ops 6 is being promoted in the CoD HQ and not in MW3 or Warzone. Others argue that if this technique didn't work, they wouldn't be implementing it, which is likely given they've been going for years now. This is fair as the CoD community is vast and the ones criticizing the game on social media platforms for its flaws are a minority. Therefore, the devs are ultimately going to do what works best for them.

Call of Duty's success can be attributed to several factors including the casual player-oriented gameplay experience, grindable weapons and camos, classic multiplayer formula, action-packed campaign, and much more. However, marketing also plays an important role in the games' sales numbers. Now, paid promotions through different channels are important, but free ads shown to existing players in-game are even more lucrative.

Solutions moving forward

While this a promotional method I dislike, I admire how they implemented the Black Ops 6 Easter Eggs into Warzone. It added value to the game as it's fun content that offers small challenges for us players to enjoy. (I was able to unlock free goodies like the Sally weapon blueprint and a cool finishing move.) Hopefully, we get to see more of these challenges and events leading up to the release of BO6 and its integration with Warzone later this year.

Let's just assume that CoD HQ is actually a good place to promote the new game to the active playing community. Then can we at least have a clean, easy-to-navigate menu at the very least? The horizontal scrolling behavior is ideal for smartphones and games like Warzone Mobile, but it's a headache going through the big tabs on a PC or console with your controller or mouse. If the BO6 promotions can't be toned down, we can at least revert to the simpler vertical list-style menu in the future.

If you remember playing any old Call of Duty games, or even Modern Warfare 2019, you would know how easy it was to customize your loadout and select game modes because of the vertical menu. Why can't we just have a simple menu design and get rid of the big fancy tabs and long animations that cause the game to freeze even months after its launch? Another thing that the developers can do is provide the option of where you want to go — MW3, Warzone, or MW2 — right when you hit launch. This is counterproductive to their CoD HQ design, but the player experience would be so much better.

We publish more such Call of Duty content here on Pro Game Guides. You can check out our articles on Warzone’s got a gun bloat problem and ‘Carry Forward’ isn’t helping and Call of Duty’s lag situation is only getting worse and needs to be fixed.