Want Every Black Ops Map on PS5? That'll Be $70

Recent store updates on Steam and Xbox have quietly lowered the prices of Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 DLC map packs from $14.99 to $9.99 each, while the Black Ops 2 Season Pass dropped from $49.99 to $29.99. As spotted by Reddit user RdJokr93, the timing lines up perfectly with the upcoming PlayStation ports announced by Treyarch last week, and the math isn't pretty: buying every map pack across both games would run you an additional $70.

That's because Black Ops 1 never had a Season Pass, so its four DLC packs would each need to be purchased individually at $9.99. Black Ops 2's Season Pass covers its DLC at the reduced $29.99. Add those together and you're looking at a full game's price in map packs alone, stacked on top of whatever Activision ends up charging for the base ports themselves. Activision hasn't confirmed pricing for the ports or addressed the DLC situation directly, but the store changes speak for themselves.

I find it absurd that we're potentially talking about paying over $100 to play the complete versions of games that launched in 2010 and 2012. These aren't remasters with rebuilt assets or new features. Activision confirmed to Eurogamer that these are straight ports handled by Iron Galaxy, running on PS4 and PS5 without native next-gen enhancements. Xbox players have had access to both games through backwards compatibility for years, DLC included, at their original prices.

There is one small consolation: all of Black Ops 2's camo packs, which previously cost $2 each, are now free to download. And according to CharlieIntel, the ports will run on their own dedicated servers rather than the hacked-to-pieces PS3 infrastructure, which at least means multiplayer should be playable. But clean servers don't soften the sting of rebuying map packs you may have already purchased a decade ago on the same PlayStation ecosystem.

The social media response to the ports has been enormous. Treyarch's announcement post on X pulled in over 158,000 likes, more than double what Modern Warfare 4's reveal trailer managed. A lot of that enthusiasm, though, was built on nostalgia and the assumption that these would be complete packages. Asking fans to pay $70 in DLC for 14-year-old maps on top of the port price is a fast way to turn goodwill into frustration, and Activision still hasn't said a word about it.