If you had a look at today’s patch notes detailing what has been changed and improved with the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you would have noticed that the development team has added ‘Background downloading’ functionality to the game.

At first, I thought this was to bring parity to the game’s feature set across all platforms, but moments later we’ve learned that Activision and Treyarch will be using the functionality to assist with an upcoming micro-transaction feature in Black Ops 2 on Xbox 360.

Starting tomorrow, March 13th, Black Ops 2 players on Microsoft’s console will be able to purchase in-game content, called ‘Micro Items,’ that Activision community liaison Dan Amrich has described as having no affect on gameplay and are purely for customisation purposes.

What kinds of Micro Items can Black Ops 2 players expect from tomorrow? Here are a few examples from Amrich:

Personalization Packs

“Like dress-up for your favorite weapons. Each themed pack contains a unique weapon camo, three targeting reticles (one each for the Reflex, EO Tech, and ACOG sights), and a custom player Calling Card. All that stuff comes as a set for 160 MS Points.

“One notable example: the Bacon Personalization Pack (!) wraps your favorite weapon in the most delicious cured meat known to man. I like that Treyarch has a sense of humor.”

Nuketown 2025

“Folks have been asking me about the pre-order bonus map’s wide availability for some time now, so here it is ‒ and it’s free, so all players can enjoy it together.”

Nuketown Zombies

“If you didn’t get Nuketown Zombies as part of the Hardened or Care Package limited editions of the game, now you can get it as a standalone level for 400 MS Points.”

Extra Slots Pack

“This one’s for the players who requested even more loadouts and/or are fans of Theater Mode. You can now get 10 more Create-a-Class slots (giving you 20 total if you’ve gone all the way up to Prestige Master) and significantly expand your media storage, allowing you to archive 20 more emblems, 32 more films and 40 more screenshots for 160 MS Points.”

Flags of the World Calling Card Packs

“These packs include national flag-themed Calling Cards from countries around the world. Packs are divided by geographical region and costs 80 MS Points per region pack.”

Amrich reminds us that all of the above content, and all content offered as a Micro Item in the future, will be “completely optional” and have been created for players begging for more customisation features.

“If that’s not you,” says Amrich, “that’s fine; everybody gets Nuketown 2025 for free, so definitely take advantage of that.”

Amrich also notes that the Micro Item feature for Black Ops 2 will also be coming to other platforms soon, he’s currently waiting on dates to announce so it’s currently only going to be available on Xbox 360.

Is this kind of customisation something that you would be interested in for Call of Duty? Have you been waiting for a feature like this and will you be splashing MS Points out on a weapon wrapped in bacon?

Thanks to Antonov for the news tip!

Source: Dan Amrich’s Blog

Tags: activision, callofdutyblackops2, microtransactions, patch, titleupdate, treyarch