The battle royale mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be free-to-play from Jan. 17 to Jan. 24 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. While this event may only be designed to boost subsequent sales, it does offer prospective players a chance to exert pressure on Activision to release a permanent F2P version of the mode.

Free Trial Event Facts

Not much is known about the free trial, as Activision have only announced the event by means of the above trailer video. The event will start on January 16th on all platforms (PC, Xbox One, PS4), but the exact time has yet to be announced. A full week of free trial will give new players plenty of time to find out if they like the game, and whether they are willing to buy it or not.

Marketing Move or F2P Market Analysis?

Are Activision already considering turning the Blackout mode into a free-to-play game, or is this event just a marketing operation designed to boost the sales of the actual game? Probably both, but the outcome is open-ended and will be decided by new players, or more precisely by their actual behavior.
If many players join in and play actively during the free-to-play event, but only a small part decide to buy the game in the few weeks that follow, Activision will definitely consider making the mode fully F2P to boost microtransactions, which are by far the gaming industry’s most profitable source of revenue.