Like clockwork, the Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone store has yet another bundle bringing us closer to the mobile game landscape. The bundle’s theme is a serial killer, and it looks like CoD wants to kill your wallet for double the XP. But if you want to pay for more XP overall, you’ll have to drag your friends along on the spending spree, too.
The Serial Creep Party Pack gives players double XP as long as they have the same skin equipped in the party. With three players in the party using the same skin, that bonus gets increased for the Battle Pass as well. The Godzilla X Kong $80 melee weapon wasn’t enough, so now it’s time for gameplay.
What Is the Party Pack XP Boost in MW3?
By spending 1,600 COD Points, you unlock a Serial Creep cosmetic bundle with an Operator Skin and some new weapons. Wearing this skin by itself won’t provide any benefits on its own, so it’s more like a Call of Duty XP pyramid scheme. When another player in your party is wearing the same Rave skin as the Swagger Operator, you get a boost for Double Weapon XP and standard Double XP.
If you can rope a third player into the pyramid scheme for around $20, then you get Double Battle Pass XP. They all fall under the “Killer skins” bonus and I can only imagine that more of these will be released soon so that parties have more variety. And if I were a betting man (not counting the bet I make on CoD every fall), I’d say that the same FOMO tactic will be used for a special killer skin as well when you buy two or more bundles.
Related: How to Use Akimbo Attachments in CoD MW3
Overall, this bundle probably isn’t Pay-To-Win in the general sense, and there are already ways to earn weapons in the Battle Pass faster than usual. That doesn’t mean this isn’t another slippery slope for the store.
Don’t Defend the Slippery Store Slope in CoD
Party XP might not be Pay-To-Win but this is all just a test. What can Activision place in the Call of Duty Store without too much backlash? Weapon cosmetics for $80 seem to have been fine for the community so I’m sure those will stay, but those were just for looks. Based on past actions, though, we know it won’t stop with cosmetics.
DMZ had some Pay-To-Win bundles that allowed players to call in a UAV at the start of a match. Because it was only DMZ, there wasn’t a massive uproar, which is why I see the latest bundles in the CoD store as a small creep toward the line. What can they get away with? So far, it seems like the XP boost is flying under the radar, so of course, something new will follow closer to the Pay-To-Win line.
Nothing about these bundles is in the community’s best interest. We aren’t guaranteed better content, and unlike most live service games, we pay a premium price every year before our cosmetics are wiped only to be resold once more. At the very least we can preserve the core gameplay experience that CoD keeps bringing us back for. Don’t fall for these ridiculous bundles so we can avoid the mobile landscape headed our way.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone are available now on multiple platforms.
