The first thing you realize after playing a competitive FPS with headphones on is that you should never play a competitive FPS without headphones on. All games sound best with your ears squeezed between a nice pair of speakers, but in shooters, the ability to isolate background noise and pick out the direction of footsteps, callouts, and gunshots can literally make you a better player.
That relationship between skill and sound is the only reason I read an entire blog post dedicated to audio in Black Ops 6, and why I'm raising an ear-brow at a new "Enhanced Headphone Mode" that promises to maximize audio clarity for those willing to part with an extra $20.
Some important details: This isn't an in-house Treyarch feature, but a partnership with Embody, a company whose whole deal is creating "personalized spatial audio" profiles for games using AI. The outfit also offers profiles for Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy 14, but this is the first time its tech has been applied to a competitive shooter.
The goal is to simulate 3D audio in headphones like Dolby Atmos or Windows Spatial Sound and "increase the directional accuracy of sounds played in the world," according to Activision's blurb about it. One way it accomplishes that is by creating an HRTF (Head-related Transfer Function) profile by literally scanning the shape of your ears and head to approximate how your ears intake audio.
While Black Ops 6 will include a free-to-use "universal" spatial audio profile, the personalized HRTF feature, which Embody promises will take your audio to the "next level", requires a $20 subscription that lasts five years after a 30-day trial period.
So yes, you can technically pay for a better(?) audio processing experience in Black Ops 6, though I'm not ready to call this "pay-to-win" audio just yet. For one, it sounds like a lot of hoopla for marginal improvements. The most crucial audio information in Call of Duty games (gunshots, footsteps) is pretty readable with a default headphone setup already, so I'm not convinced an extra layer of 3D processing will significantly speed up my reaction time to sounds.
That's not to suggest the game won't sound better or more immersive—3D audio is pretty darn neat—but in a game whose soundscape is dominated by the explosions of predator missiles, grenades, and constant soldier barks, I'm skeptical that more subtle directional footsteps will make a difference. I'll definitely be trying that universal audio profile at launch and maybe let it scan my ears if I can sign up for the trial without punching in a credit card. The Enhanced Headphone Mode will work on all platforms, and if you just want that universal profile, it looks like activating will be as simple as flipping a switch in a menu.
