Activision relents, will give double XP tokens to Modern Warfare 2 players who missed the fine print

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available for purchase as a couple of different versions: The basic box for $70, and the Vault Edition (opens in new tab), which goes for $100 and includes extra stuff like extra operator skins, the first season battle pass, and 50 battle pass tier skips. There was also an offer of 10 hours of double XP and double weapon XP tokens for anyone who preordered the game—but only if it was preordered through the in-game store of Call of Duty: Warzone, Vanguard, Black Ops – Cold War, or Modern Warfare.

The specificity of that point was missed by some eager Call of Duty fans, who were subsequently disappointed to discover that their Vault Editions of the game did not include the tokens. Multiple threads were posted on Reddit inquiring about their absence.

The pre-release promotional material does state that the tokens will be offered to “players who purchase the Vault Edition through the in-game store in Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” and there are plenty of Reddit replies blaming the posters for failing to read the listing. But to be fair, the line about the in-game store requirement is very near the bottom of the page and under a headline that states, somewhat more vaguely, “In-Game Store 2XP Bonus.”

Some redditors take issue with what they feel is deviousness or misleading advertising on the part of Activision—the word “bullshit” is well-represented across multiple threads—while others take issue with the requirement itself, regardless of how it was presented.

“I can’t believe how many people are excusing this by ‘you didn’t read’,” redditor enzeetee (opens in new tab) wrote. “Are you kidding me? We paid the same amount of money as anyone else who got the Vault edition. Why would I download a game just to buy another game? I play on PC so I made the purchase through battle.net. It’s the same company. Who cares if I buy it in the store. This is by far the most greedy and outrageous sales tactic I’ve seen them pull so far.”

A good number of redditors also called on Activision to give the XP tokens to everyone who bought the Modern Warfare 2 Vault Edition, and that is what’s going to happen.

“We understand there has been some confusion about an in-game-store exclusive reward for the Vault edition,” Activision said via the Call of Duty Twitter feed. “Therefore, we’ve decided to reward all players that currently own or purchase any version of the MWII Vault Edition with 10 hours of double XP tokens and 10 hours of double weapon XP tokens.” If you own the Vault Edition and don’t already have them, the tokens should appear in your account sometime within the next 48 hours.

If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out our full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review (opens in new tab): Our staff writer and shooter enthusiast Morgan Park  liked it quite a bit, saying it “sets a new bar for Call of Duty all over again.” If you’re already deep into the action, we’ve also got handy guides for Spec Ops missions and how to complete them (opens in new tab), and how to unlock Modern Warfare 2’s Mastery Camos (opens in new tab).