Call of Duty has joined Microsoft’s bid to reinvigorate interest in Xbox consoles, today announcing a Modern Warfare 4 gun skin that you can only see if you’re playing on an Xbox.
You read that right: The Inner Circuit blueprint is an M4 skin granted to those who pre-order Modern Warfare 4 on any platform, but the gun looks totally different on the Xbox version.
LEFT: The Inner Circuit skin as it’ll appear on PC, PlayStation, and Switch 2.
Image credit: Activision Blizzard
RIGHT: The Xbox 25th Anniversary Inner Circuit, exclusive to Xbox
Image credit: Activision Blizzard
The Xbox 25th anniversary edition of the skin is designed after the green translucent plastic of the original Xbox console—it also features an Xbox logo and “Xbox 25” branding on the magazine. It looks, I must admit, pretty cool. Too bad these pictures are as close as I’ll ever get to seeing it, as I don’t own an Xbox.
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Platform-specific incentives are nothing new for Call of Duty—for years, a Sony partnership meant PlayStation players got extra double XP, and Xbox used to get first dibs on map packs—but what’s strange here is how this cosmetic isn’t just exclusive to one platform, but only perceivable by it as well. If an Xbox player wants to show off their green M4 to a friend on PC, all they’ll see is a boring-looking grey gun.
In a dedicated Xbox gun blog post, Activision clarified that in all ways other than appearance, the weapon blueprint is the same across platforms: “Both versions use the same attachments and perform identically in-game.”
That’s certainly one way to make pre-orders for a preferred platform more attractive, though this approach strikes me as more confusing than simply giving Xbox players a unique skin that everyone can see. At least that way I would actually know when the guy who killed me is trying to show off their fancy Xbox gun in a killcam. Instead, non-Xboxers who don’t read Activision’s blog or this website won’t even know the difference. Strange!
And to think: This time last year, my PC was an Xbox.