Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will have microtransactions – we've know this for a while, but we now know why: they're making Activision a ton of money.
From Acitivision Blizzard's Q3 2016 financial report, they company confirmed that "The number of in-game content purchasers in Call of Duty more than doubled year-to-date."
Now you may say that this doesn't necessarily equate to actual dollar amounts – just the number of people who purchased them. While it's true that these new purchasers may all be nickle-and-diming their way to new content (unlikely), the report also confirmed that in-game content purchases reached a record of almost $1 billion this quarter alone.
It's been confirmed for a while that supply drops will continue in Infinite Warfare– in-game boxes that the usual suspects of microtransactions, including weapons – but some weapons are actually locked behind supply drops only. While you can work to earn Call of Duty Points to earn these in game, you can also just buy them with real money.
Apparently, that is the preferred option. While most people will complain about the existence of microtransactions in video games, enough people are collectively voting with their wallets to ensure the survival of this quasi-free-to-play model.
