New Call of Duty Skin Comes With Controversial Upgrade

gamerant.com:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone users can now purchase the Killer Serial Creep Party Pack, which includes an operator skin that gives multiple XP bonuses when at least two members in a party have the skin equipped. The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 skin has already received criticism for being «pay-to-win» and might remind CoD fans of an earlier strategy.

Last year,Modern Warfare 2 added skin bundles that included pay-to-win upgrades for DMZ, such as receiving a free medium backpack at the beginning of every match or permanently getting an additional operator slot. While many were not surprised by Activision's approach, the bundles understandably received criticism for giving meaningful, gameplay-affecting upgrades to those willing to spend additional money on a game that already charges a premium price. Despite the criticism, it seems that the Call of Duty franchise has chosen to stick with this strategy but in a way that doesn't affect other players as much.

After spending 1600 CoD Points to unlock the Killer Serial Creep Party Pack, users receive the Rave skin that comes with a «Party Skin Bonus.» An in-game message explains that users receive double XP and double weapon XP when two members or more of the same party equip skins from the Killer series; additional Killer skins are set to be released in the future. Furthermore, if three or more members of the same party have Killer skins equipped, a double battle pass XP bonus is applied as well. While these XP bonuses aren't necessarily “pay-to-win” like the previously mentioned DMZ bundles but are rather “pay-to-skip," they do allow users to unlock new battle pass weapons at a faster rate, which are often quite powerful when first released.

Activision already revealed another Killer bundle during its showcase of Modern Warfare 3's Season 3 update in early April. In the update overview shared on Call of Duty's website, the Killer Circus Freak Party Pack was shown, which was confirmed to include XP