Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta players worry they’ve found hints of loot boxes

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta players are concerned loot boxes may be back in the latest entry in the series.

Just hours after the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare beta started on PlayStation 4, players noticed the phrase Supply Drop mentioned as a possible unlock in a bugged After Action Report. In past Call of Duty games, Supply Drops have been the series’ version of loot boxes, which players could buy to get in-game items. While these have been in Call of Duty games in one form or another since 2014’s Advanced Warfighter, fans have had issues with the way the series has implemented them in the last several games.

In Call of Duty: World War 2, which came out in 2017 the loot boxes that players could buy — either with cash or in-game currency — were all handled in the social space, which happened to be the beaches of Normandy, something that rubbed some players the wrong way. Meanwhile, in both Call of Duty: World War 2 and last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 loot boxes have contained certain in-game items that are more than cosmetics, like guns or characters. This fact often frustrates the players who feel they’ve already bought the full price game, and the season pass, and they shouldn’t be in a position to either pay for something else or feel like they’re at a competitive disadvantage.

For now, it’s worth noting that we have no idea how loot boxes might be implemented into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, or if they’ll even make it into the final game — this is only a beta after all. It seems that the Supply Drop appearing in the After Action Report may simply be a bug. But in a series with such a troubled recent history with loot boxes, it’s no surprise that players immediately noticed mentions of them in the beta for the latest game in the series.

Polygon has reached out to Activision for comment.