Bloody Hell, Did the ESRB Just Confirm CoD Skins Carry Over? (And Yes, the Bong Rifle Too)
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Gaming wizard Jeff unravels a curious CoD Black Ops 7 mystery: an ESRB rating seemingly confirms premium content, including the infamous 'Dank Days' weed skins, will carry over from Black Ops 6, sparking both cheers and groans from players amidst rising game prices and accidental leaks.
Right, so I’ve been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it’s wilder than it first appeared. You know that feeling when you cast a spell and it works a bit too well, accidentally revealing something you perhaps weren't quite ready for? Yeah, that’s what might have just happened with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and its shiny new age rating.
Turns out, the folks at the ESRB – those diligent guardians of our gaming innocence (or lack thereof) – have dropped the age rating for Black Ops 7. It’s a solid M for Mature, surprise, surprise, and it’s hitting PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and even gracing our trusty last-gen consoles, PS4 and Xbox One. All pretty standard stuff, right? But then, hidden in the digital tea leaves of the rating summary, there’s this little throwaway line that’s got the gaming community’s collective eyebrows doing Olympic-level gymnastics.
The summary mentions weapons featuring "marijuana/joints/paraphernalia: players' characters inhaling marijuana from a bong-like structure attached to a rifle; players' characters smoking joints or inhaling through bongs as part of execution sequences." Now, if you’ve been anywhere near Black Ops 6, your brain probably just did a little connection dance. Because that, my curious mates, sounds an awful lot like the notorious 'Dank Days Tracer Pack.'
For those who perhaps missed this… *ahem*… culturally significant piece of premium content, the Dank Days bundle in Black Ops 6 was a delightful collection of skins, weapon charms, sprays, and those rather memorable finishing moves that involved, well, exactly what the ESRB just described. A rifle with a bong attached? Check. Characters lighting up mid-execution? Double check. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you wonder if the devs were having a laugh, or genuinely trying to push the boundaries of in-game… *aesthetics*.
Now, if players are on the money with this deduction – and honestly, it’s a fairly straightforward bit of digital detective work, like finding the missing ingredient for a potion – it indirectly confirms something pretty big. It means the premium content we’ve been shelling out for in Black Ops 6, even the gloriously silly bits like a cannabis-themed weapon skin, will apparently carry over into Black Ops 7. Fair dinkum, that’s quite the revelation!
On one hand, you’ve got the folks who are absolutely chuffed. “My skins! My precious, questionable skins! They live!” I can almost hear the celebratory whoops. Keeping your cosmetics, especially those you paid good hard cash for, across game iterations is a pretty player-friendly move. After all, nobody likes spending a tenner on a fancy weapon camo only for it to vanish into the digital ether when the next annual instalment drops.
But then, there’s the other side of the coin, and frankly, it’s a side I can sympathise with. One player succinctly put it: “So all the stupid s**t is being carried over.” Another simply declared: “Carry forward confirmed, huge L.” And you can see their point, can’t you? Call of Duty, for all its bombast and occasional attempts at serious storytelling, does lean into the absurd with its cosmetics. If you’re a player who prefers a more grounded, gritty military shooter experience, the idea of an endless parade of flamboyant, joke-y skins following you from game to game might feel like a step too far into the Fortnite-ification of a franchise you used to love.
This whole carry-forward business is particularly interesting when you consider the grand vision. Black Ops 7, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, made its big splash at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 (yeah, 2025, we’re practically in the future here!). It’s also the first ever *consecutive* release within the Black Ops sub-series. Matt Cox, General Manager of Call of Duty, apparently insisted that the team’s vision was “to create a back-to-back series experience for our players that embraced the uniqueness of the Black Ops sub-franchise.”
Now, "back-to-back series experience" – what does that *really* mean? On the surface, it suggests continuity, a shared world, maybe even narrative threads that flow seamlessly. But, in the cold, hard light of corporate strategy, it also smells a bit like a clever way to encourage continued engagement and, dare I say it, spending on cosmetics. If your investment in last year’s digital bling carries forward, aren’t you more likely to keep investing? It’s a shrewd move, mate, a very shrewd move indeed.
And speaking of accidental reveals and a somewhat chaotic development cycle, let’s not forget that this isn't Black Ops 7's first rodeo with spilling the beans. Just recently, details of a developer-only playtest – including juicy tidbits like "Skirmish" and "Overload" multiplayer modes, and a 20v20 wingsuit option – were accidentally released to all fans on the Call of Duty app. Whoopsie! It’s like a wizard accidentally leaving their spellbook open on a public library table. You just know someone’s going to read it.
Of course, these accidental reveals happen in an industry that’s constantly pushing out content, but they do add to the picture of a franchise navigating some interesting waters. Remember those controversial ads Activision pulled from Black Ops 6 and Warzone loadouts last month? They insisted it was just a “feature test” published “in error.” It all makes you wonder what other "tests" are floating around out there.
But here’s the kicker, the real sorcerous twist: Black Ops 6 was a premium $70 game. And Black Ops 7? Well, Microsoft has hinted that new first-party games around the holiday season might be jumping to $79.99. So, we’re talking about potentially $80 for a game where your previous cosmetic purchases – including the ones that might raise an eyebrow or two – are coming along for the ride. It’s a curious balance, isn’t it? On one hand, value for existing purchases; on the other, a creeping price hike for the core game itself.
So, what does it all mean for us, the curious gamers who just want to play some decent games without feeling like we're being constantly nudged into microtransactions or subjected to questionable aesthetics? It means we’re living in a world where the lines between annual instalments are blurring, where your digital wardrobe might just be more permanent than you thought, and where even an age rating can accidentally spill the beans on a major monetization strategy. It’s chaotic, it’s interesting, and it certainly keeps us on our toes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if my old wizard hat from Elder Scrolls Online will ever make it into the next iteration. A bloke can dream, right?
Source: IGN South Africa
Tags: Call of Duty, Black Ops 7, Gaming News, Cosmetics, ESRB
Original article: IGN South Africa