Top 5 times Activision went too far with the Call of Duty community

Activision and the Call of Duty community have a love-hate relationship that's been ongoing since the first mainstream title launched in 2008.

For many years, Call of Duty fans praised Activision for getting the newest COD games out on time. Players were ecstatic that a brand new COD arrived year after year. Times have changed, however. Those same Call of Duty fans have been targeted by Activision, sometimes by their own accord. It is really interesting to see the love for the publisher transition to mostly disdain because of interactions between it and the Call of Duty community.

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Top 5 times Activision went too far with the Call of Duty community

#5 - Shutting down the forums

Image via Activision

When Activision shut down their forums, it really felt like a slap in the face to their gaming communities, especially Call of Duty. The forums were a place to discuss games, show off clips, get support, and interact with members of the Activision team. There was no real reason given to this, but many believe it was because of the Call of Duty community trolling and complaining all over the site. Still, closing the forums put a giant rift between the Call of Duty community and Activision.

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#4 - Massive update sizes

Anyone else found it impossible to log in to #CoD #Warzone ? Got the insanely huge install, insanely huge updates, still can't actually play for the 10 minutes I will before getting bored

— Merlin Harries (@merlinharries) September 12, 2020

Call of Duty players don't have many nice things to say about Activision these days. Another thing that saw Activision go too far and cause divide between them and the community is the size of Warzone updates. The file sizes are massive for an already large game. Eventually, players were able to download specific parts of the game only. That is happening with Black Ops Cold War as well. It might be too late to change any minds, however.

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#3 - PlayStation exclusives for Black Ops Cold War

More #BlackOpsColdWar benefits exclusive to PS4 and PS5 players:🔹Battle Pass Bundle Bonus: Additional 5 tier skips🔹Party Bonus: PlayStation players that play together in parties receive +25% bonus weapon XP🔹Monthly Double XP events (24 hr)🔹Additional 2 loadout slots pic.twitter.com/mK4dcTDREi

— Black Ops Cold War News (@CODColdWarNews) November 6, 2020

Recently, Activision and Treyarch announced some exclusive perks for players of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on PlayStation systems. Sony has taken their partnership with Activision and gotten the most out of it. They see content first and received early access via the Alpha and Beta weekends. PlayStation players have it good when it comes to Call of Duty. Players on PC and Xbox systems, though, are furious. They feel left out by not receiving extra class slots, double XP events, and more.

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#2 - Suing Call of Duty leakers

If you go to Atlas Superstore in a private match and become the COD caster you can explore the entire map. It is all low quality because you don't see it in regular gameplay. I flew all the way up in the sky to get the overview :) pic.twitter.com/QpiVaBd7Un

— Ryan B. (@PrestigeIsKey) February 12, 2020

The above tweet is not a leaker that was sued, but does show just how easy it is to obtain leaked information for Call of Duty. The Warzone map was lowly rendered on the outer boundaries of the Atlas Superstore multiplayer map. In March of 2020, Activision decided to subpoena Reddit in order to get a user's personal information. This is because that user shared an image of the then unreleased Call of Duty: Warzone map. Some developers would take the time to announce their intentions and move on. Instead, Activision attempted legal action to the leaker in order to keep their secrets for just a few days longer.

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#1 - Sending investigators to the home of cheat developers

Activision Blizzard continues to take down cheat manufacturers. This time, the company sent a cease & desist to the owner of GatorCheats, and the owner says Activision sent investigators to his house. He has since deleted all COD related cheats. https://t.co/KVLOxBPmYp pic.twitter.com/lxkfmYbZW1

— Call of Duty News (@charlieINTEL) September 14, 2020

Yes, cheaters are rampant in Call of Duty, especially Warzone. No one is condoning cheaters and hackers. They are in every game and can ruin competitive integrity. Regardless of that, the fact that Activision went directly after the cheat maker rather than those using it and caused quite the ruckus. The Call of Duty publisher literally sent private investigators to the cheat creator's home. To avoid legal action, the creator deleted all COD related cheats. The fact that cheaters are still an issue has made fans see this action negatively. It wasn't nearly enough to solve the problem.