Treyarch's design director David Vonderhaar has been called out on Reddit for saying that Blackout characters will be unlockable only through missions. With the latest Black Ops 4 update which brings loot boxes, this isn't the case anymore.
Call of Duty Black Ops 4's Operation Grand Heist which landed on 19 February 2019 introduced numerous content additions but also brought back loot boxes to the series.
These loot boxes or Reserve Crates can drop warpaints, camos, outfits and signature weapons. Now it's also emerged that some blackout characters are locked behind Reserve Crates.
For example, to obtain Vacation Hudson character you can either grind for reserve items for hours and pray that the gods of RNG notice you, or spend some hard earned cash on one of the crates.
Obviously, this caused outrage on Reddit and the controversy was fueled even more when a user named lagmademedoit shared a video, in which Treyarch's Design Director David Vonderhaar talks about the game prior to its release.
Back then, Vonderhaar confirmed that Blackout characters will be unlockable through missions and quests, which is clearly not the case anymore.
While some Redditors blamed Vonderhaar directly for saying things he's not certain of, others defended him claiming that he doesn't have a say when it comes to monetisation.
David to the thread by saying that at the time of the interview it's "precisely and exactly" how Blackout character unlocking worked. According to Vonderhaar, not all decisions are his and some things cannot be predicted, which is why he's considering to "never give interviews, nor answer questions".
He concluded by saying that he answered the questions as best he could with the information he had at the moment, and that players can accuse him of "not being clairvoyant", but never a liar because "that's just not the case".
Activision
While players aren't happy with his comment, which currently has more than 50 downvotes, it's clear that Vonderhaar is saying his role in Black Ops 4's monetisation is non-existent. On the other hand, Vonderhaar is in business with Activision long enough to know what type of microtransactions they like.
During the Call of Duty Black Ops 4 reveal in 2018, Vonderhaar confirmed in the that the developers are solely focusing on the game and how Activision chooses to distribute isn’t something that he has insight into.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 various modes, maps and characters
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