Activision may have clarified that Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2’s PS4 and PS5 versions will be simple ports as opposed to full remasters, but fans remained excited about their arrival nonetheless. Unfortunately, Call of Duty: Black Ops fans have become less than thrilled thanks to the notion that they could be paying for DLC maps again, which is a real possibility following some recent store updates.
Prior to this potential discovery, PlayStation fans were thrilled at the idea of having access to these beloved gems. While the remaster of Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 3 (2023)’s collection of classic, remastered MW2 maps meant those games lived on via the newer PlayStation consoles, the first two Black Ops games have remained isolated. Sure, PC players have been accessing them just fine, and backwards compatibility meant Xbox users were in the clear, too, but PlayStation fans? If they wanted to play BO2 or BO1, they had to dust off their PS3 consoles. These ports, then, are long overdue, but the cost attached to them could prove very controversial.
Because of the PS3’s complicated architecture, the PS4 was not backwards compatible, which is why BO1 and BO2 have been trapped on the old hardware for so long.
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Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 DLC Prices Just Changed Ahead of The Big Re-Release
While it’s important to note that Activision has not addressed Black Ops 1 and 2 DLC prices yet, nor has it clarified the prices and potential bundling of the games themselves, the timing certainly seems telling. Of all the times for the DLC prices to change, having them lowered a month before the release of PS4 and PS5 ports speaks volumes. It can safely be assumed that Black Ops fans will need to re-purchase the slightly cheaper map packs for these classic games, with the ports only containing the base map lineups for multiplayer and Zombies.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
As indicated in the Reddit post above from user RdJokr93, map pack prices have been lowered from $14.99 to $9.99 USD. The Black Ops 2 Season Pass has been decreased from $49.99 to $29.99. This means that, to access every map in Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2, players may need to pay an additional $70. This is because the original Black Ops lacked a Season Pass, so its four packs will need to be purchased individually. Naturally, players are reacting how one would expect given that they’ll not only have to fork over whatever Activision ends up charging for these ports, but potentially a full game’s cost in DLC on top of that.
The only silver lining with the DLC prices being lowered is that all the camo packs for Black Ops 2 have gone from costing $2 each to being completely free to download. There’s also a world where the BO2 Season Pass and maybe even the individual map packs for both games are discounted, as the former has happened temporarily on multiple occasions. This news is particularly annoying for fans of the CoD Zombies mode, as Zombies maps could not be purchased individually until BO3. This means if they want to replay beloved maps like Mob of the Dead on PS4 and PS5, they may have no choice but to pay extra.
For now, all Call of Duty fans can do is hope that Activision surprises them and that these DLC price changes are, somehow, completely unrelated to the upcoming ports. At the very least, a bundle including both Black Ops games and all their DLC would be a healthy middle ground, or a loyalty discount for those that bought the PS3 versions, though there’s no telling if either will happen.