Infinity War has added a message about Black Lives Matter and racism in its Call of Duty community to Modern Warfare and Warzone in a new update following the ongoing nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd and police brutality.
When players start either game after installing the update they’ll encounter a message saying that Infinity Ward and Call of Duty “stand against the racism and injustice our Black community endures.”
Screenshot: Activision
It’s also accompanied by a separate message about actions the studio is taking to deal with the racist content that appears in its game. Modern Warfare allows players to create custom gamertags where racist terms and slurs have been known to appear, to say nothing of the racist stuff players will say over the game’s mic’d party chat.
On Wednesday, Infinity Ward announced it would devote more resources to monitoring racist content, filtering it out of the game, and punishing those players responsible for it. The rough outline for those efforts, many of which players thought Infinity War should have already been doing, is now also included in the game.
Screenshot: Activision
Activision has also delayed Modern Warfare’s latest season of content, originally set to go live this week, saying “now is not the time.” While some other video game companies have announced donations to Black Lives Matter and other organisations fighting for racial justice, Activision hasn’t yet. Last month the company made a $US2 ($3) million donation to its Call of Duty Endowment which works to help military veterans find jobs. Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, has received nearly $US100 ($144) million in stock options over the last four years.
Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Looking for ways to advocate for black lives? Check out this list of resources by our sister site Lifehacker for ways to get involved.
Seeing an increase in racist messages as well in game.
Because people know its easy to bait people into a reaction right now.
That’s all they do it for, The Reaction. Without the reaction, they would move on.
Yeah I haven’t seen any one react to it though. I’ve just been reporting them instead.
Yeah i usually do the same. Ill just report their profile on xbox.
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So can people get refunds since the political messaging and virtue signalling was not included in the dot points before sale? id like to keep my products as described.
You could try asking the developer, but I don’t think you’d have much luck arguing they are legally required to give you one.
To be entitled to a refund, you’d need to argue that the splash screen change is a major fault. Given that none of the advertising material for the game mention the contents of the splash screen, you’d need to show some evidence that you bought the game because of the old splash screen.
I think you’d have trouble claiming it is a minor fault too, but even if you succeeded there they would only be obliged to fix the fault rather than offer you a refund. In all likeliness that will happen anyway.