Black Ops 4 loot boxes weren't part of the original plan

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's design director, David Vonderhaar, has defended an interview where he said Blackout characters would be only be locked behind missions. The interview resurfaced after the latest update, Operation Grand Heist, snuck loot boxes into the game and trapped the new characters inside them.  It's become increasingly hard to escape Black Ops 4's microtransactions. It's a premium game with a cosmetic shop, a season pass, a battle pass and now these loot crates, called 'reserve crates' in-game.  Vonderhaar said that, knowing what he knew then—the interview video was published in September 2018—that was the only answer he could give.

 "At the time this interview was conducted, which was previous to shipping the game, that's precisely and exactly how it worked. If I went back in time and re-did this interview, I'd have to answer it the same way I did then. "He pointed out that changes occur across development, and they're not always design decisions. Specialists being unlocked through microtransactions and new characters being added via the season pass are two such examples, both of which changed after the interview.