The Controversy Over the Call of Duty Franchise Collection
A thousand-dollar-plus Call of Duty Franchise Collection remains a source of contention for both new and long-time fans of the franchise, especially given that prior titles are expected to be available on Xbox Game Pass for a fraction of the price.
Activision Bundle Offer for PC Players
Activision has integrated practically every published CoD title in one easy-to-buy bundle for PC players on Steam, from 2003’s Call of Duty to 2017’s CoD: WW2 and CoD: Modern Warfare Remastered. Assuming you haven’t bought any copy of one of these CoD games before, this packaged bundle will set you back a cool $962.60 USD—but fans aren’t sold.
Pricing Concerns and Server Accessibility
Even worse, because it is a bundle, it receives a 10% discount on Steam, which means that several of the games are still available at full price despite having been released over a decade ago. “They are still selling a 12-year-old game with no servers at the full $60 price,” one player said in a May 27 Reddit post focused around the sale. “They did not even do any special pricing, and virtually none of their games are on sale—it is terrible,” another said.
Others weighed in, pointing out that while many popular CoD titles, such as 2009’s MW2, still had servers running, the majority had been taken over by bots or undesirables looking to infect the player’s PC if they joined a lobby. Activision even shut down servers for a few days in 2023 to resolve the issue, but hackers are alleged to have returned with a vengeance.
The bundle’s true intentions are for diehard CoD fans who already own a few of the games to complete their collections with all of the games and DLC, but given that parts of CoD’s collection will most likely be added to the Game Pass subscription for a fraction of the price, many people do not see the value in the Steam bundle. “If you buy most of these games on console, it is so cheap. A used copy of Call of Duty: World At War is $5, [but] $60? Fuck out of here.”
Perhaps this one might be worthwhile if offered at a higher discount, but it is evident that gamers are not interested in the old CoD titles on Steam—and if these games make their way to Game Pass soon, it appears to be a complete waste of money.