Activision is going to launch the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on November 10. However, Activision's new owners at Microsoft are trying to get Xbox gamers to preorder the first person shooter directly on their consoles with a new popup screen, and some folks don't like it.
The pop-up screen started, well, popping up, on Thursday, asking Xbox Gamers to buy Modern Warfare III so they could start playing the campaign early, before the full game with its multiplayer and Zombies modes go live on November 10.
Pop-up ads on my own console hardware!! 🤯 That's incredibly aggravating, like 'Install Edge' pop-ups in Windows. We should be able to opt out of this junk that gets between us & what we actually want to do. I don't turn on my console to click through ads. https://t.co/UV0eOqdMQG
— SpiderAaron (@whereisaaron) November 3, 2023
One Xbox gamer, "SpiderAaron" posted his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter), comparing the situation to how Microsoft has previously put in "Install Edge" popup ads on Google's Chrome browser in Windows.
Another X user "DredgenSabre" wrote,
This is dumb. I don't play Call of Duty; I've never bought Call of Duty. I shouldn't turn on my Xbox and the literal first thing I see be an add [sic] for a game, or anything for that matter.
In response to the backlash against the popup ad, Josh Munsee, Microsoft's Director for Xbox Integrated Marketing posted a message on X pointing out that Microsoft had a similar popup screen on those consoles when Starfield launched a couple of months ago. He did admit, "But totally get CoD drawing attention with acquisition closing."
While Munsee is correct that Microsoft has put in popup ads on Xbox screens in the past, that doesn't make them any less annoying for many gamers, and this latest example might be a case of one pop-up ad too far for some of them.
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