Activision continues to hedge on its initial promise of limiting the amount of PS4-exclusive content available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. PlayStation has just revealed yet another PS4-exclusive weapon blueprint that's exclusive for PS4 players until October 2020. Considering how frustrated the Modern Warfare community has been about Activision's earlier platform exclusives, even a simple weapon blueprint is likely to result in yet more backlash for the Call of Duty publisher.
In September, Activision revealed that PlayStation 4 owners of Call 0f Duy: Modern Warfare would receive an entirely new mode exclusive to the platform. Survival Mode allows PS4 Modern Warfare players to fight against waves of enemies either single-player or cooperatively. The exclusivity was met with anger by the community, especially after a Modern Warfare dev dismissed frustrations by saying it's just "1%" of the game.
The new PS4-exclusive content isn't anywhere near as substantial as Modern Warfare's Survival Mode, but comes across more like salt in a still-fresh wound. The new content is a weapon blueprint, basically a single cosmetic, named Jack Frosty. Jack Frosty is a high mobility FN SCAR with an FTAC collapsible stock, an operator reflex sight, and a Forge TAC CQC Pro. It's great for aiming down the sights while on the move.
Early after the Jack Frosty was released players reported that Modern Warfare developers had broken it. Several variants would show up just fine in Modern Warfare's menu system, but would disappear in-game and otherwise look like a regular weapon. The issue was hotfixed in Modern Warfare's 1.11 update several days ago, so PS4 players who have unlocked the variant are able to use it in-game as they please now.
Call of Duty communities have argued with Activision against the inclusion of platform exclusives for years now. As platforms have opened up in recent years, communities generally view egregious platform-exclusive content as unacceptable. It's viewed as a company paying money to deny content from other platforms, and as charging the same amount of money on other platforms for less amount of content. Publishers have made proactive decisions about platform-exclusive content in the recent past, but there's clearly room for further improvements to be made.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.