Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 won’t include one big feature on Xbox One and PS4 — here’s why

by

What you need to know

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is slated to launch on Oct. 25, 2024 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. 
  • Speaking in an interview with Windows Central, Treyarch’s director of production Yale Miller confirmed that the Theater mode won’t be included on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions of the game. 
  • According to Miller, this is because the older consoles didn’t have the resources to record and replay matches. 

As a seasoned gamer and long-time follower of the Call of Duty series, I find myself both intrigued and disappointed by the news about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. On one hand, it’s exciting to see the franchise evolve with the times, pushing the boundaries of what modern consoles can deliver. However, on the other hand, it’s disheartening to know that players still clinging to their last-gen consoles will once again be left out in the cold, missing out on features like the Theater mode.

In the latest blockbuster first-person shooter by Activision, players using older consoles will find it impossible to revisit their multiplayer battles.

The Theater mode featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn’t accessible on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms. Instead, it’s exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5 versions of the game. In an interview with Windows Central about all aspects of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Treyarch’s production director Yale Miller explained that this limitation is due to the inability of older hardware to run the mode smoothly because of resource constraints.

“There’s no way, on a last-gen machine, that we can do all the things, especially from a graphical fidelity level. You start getting to a point where you’re looking at visual fidelity and other things. You’re wondering if you want to keep pushing to use CPU or GPU to push on graphics, then you might have to sacrifice gameplay. For us,” Miller says, “gameplay is king.” 

Call of Duty’s cross-gen cuts are nothing new

In simpler terms, the Call of Duty series has been known to remove certain aspects from its games to ensure they can run smoothly on less advanced systems.

2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 offered a campaign, zombies, and multiplayer on Xbox One, Windows PC, and PlayStation 4. However, the versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were significantly scaled down. These versions had noticeably diminished graphics in multiplayer and no campaign mode at all.

The highly anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is slated to debut on October 25, 2024. Interestingly, it will simultaneously release on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, marking the first time for this franchise and occurring just shy of a year following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Read More

2024-09-12 21:45