Call of Duty's commitment to "grounded" and "immersive" operator skins comes to an end in season three of Black Ops 7. Welcome back, weird collabs.
Season three of BO7 will add the Half Baked Tracer Pack, featuring Dave Chappelle's likeness from the 1998 movie of the same name. Half Baked is a stoner classic film, and so for the upcoming 4/20 holiday, you'll be able to play as the movie's main character Thurgood Jenkins, as played by Chappelle. Yeah.
If you're confused by the news, you're not alone. Last year, Activision made a big deal out of the fact that BO7 would be steering away from outlandish collabs like last year's Beavis & Butthead or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles operator skins. But that only lasted until season three, I suppose.
“We know there’s been a lot of conversation recently about the identity of Call of Duty,” Activision said last August. “Some of you have said we’ve drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place: immersive, intense, visceral and in many ways grounded. That feedback hits home, and we take it seriously. We hear you.”
Earlier in the year, BO7 had a collab with the Fallout TV series for Prime Video, and those skins were relatively well-received, especially considering they're from a video game series, and a beloved one at that. This one, I think, misses the mark by quite a bit, and the community reactions have reflected as much.
“In Black Ops 7, bundles and items will be crafted to fit the Black Ops identity,” Treyarch said last summer. “We hear the feedback. We need to deliver a better balance toward the immersive, core Call of Duty experience." Personally, I'd love to know how Thurgood Jenkins fits Black Ops, but that's a story for another day.
CoD's 4/20-themed skins must sell well, because they have been a constant. Previous years featured skins for Cheech and Chong and Seth Rogen. Mr. Chappelle will be joining them in a few weeks time to blaze it up on the battlefield.
Update on April 1: Call of Duty has followed up on the news with this statement on Twitter/X.
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