What you need to know
- Call of Duty is a long-running first-person shooter franchise developed by multiple studios, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer, and published by Activision (now a part of Xbox Game Studios.)
- With the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), subsequent annual premium CoD titles were bundled into one launcher with the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone. This resulted in a massive game file that took a long time for many to download.
- A new series of updates is set to deploy ahead of the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October. These updates will optimize the Call of Duty experience, decouple premium titles from Warzone, expand on texture streaming tech, and streamline the UI.
- The first step in the update series launches alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s Season 5 Reloaded update on August 21.
As a longtime Call of Duty enthusiast who has witnessed the evolution of this iconic franchise since its early days, I must say that the recent announcements from Activision and the CoD team have caught my attention. The emphasis on flexibility and choice, along with the upcoming restructuring of Call of Duty HQ, seems to be a step in the right direction for enhancing the player experience.
Black Ops 6 hits shelves in October.
The widely acclaimed Call of Duty series, often hailed as the ruler of first-person shooter games, is not exempt from receiving criticism. A frequent jibe aimed at it is its large installation requirement. Despite ongoing attempts to improve efficiency, a move in 2022 grouping Call of Duty: Warzone (formerly known as Warzone 2.0) and every new premium title under one Call of Duty HQ launcher seems to have reversed the progress made with each seasonal update.
In response to Call of Duty HQ’s persistent occupation of numerous hard drives, we are planning to roll out updates starting this month, culminating in the October launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. These updates will primarily focus on reducing the game’s file size for improved efficiency. Additionally, these updates will incorporate player feedback by refining the user interface, ensuring a smoother and more seamless experience, making it simpler for players to access their preferred gameplay quickly.
The road to Black Ops 6 starts with MW3 Season 5.5
The initial update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s Season 5 Reloaded is set for August 21st. This update includes changes to the organization of content at Call of Duty HQ, incorporating new technology for texture streaming. Texture streaming enables the development team to move infrequently used content to a streaming cache, reducing the need for it to occupy space on your storage device until needed.
In the settings menu of Call of Duty HQ, the term “On-Demand Texture Streaming” will be replaced with “On-Demand High-Quality Graphics Streaming”. This setting offers two options: Optimized (the default option) and Minimal. If you choose Minimal, you might observe a decrease in the quality of streamed graphics, but it consumes less internet data compared to high-definition texture streaming. On the other hand, selecting Optimized will use more internet bandwidth, but it will store textures at a higher resolution for smoother gameplay.
Starting from August 21, there will be a change in how Call of Duty: Warzone is distributed. Instead of being bundled with the annual releases, it will be offered separately. This means that only game-specific files will be included in each new title’s download, giving players the option to install Warzone independently whenever they prefer. The Call of Duty team explains this decision on their blog, stating, “We value flexibility and choice. We want players to have the freedom to download each Call of Duty release, including Call of Duty: Warzone, at a time and in a way that suits them best.”
As per the CoD Team’s announcement, the initial phase of reorganizing Call of Duty HQ will necessitate a substantial preliminary download. This download won’t expand the space currently occupied by Call of Duty on your hard drive, but it will necessitate a fresh installation to correctly sort out the game files and integrate new technology. After the Season 5 Reloaded update, the space taken up by Call of Duty on players’ hard drives is expected to decrease due to the new optimizations. For Xbox and PC users, this update will require a single download, similar to traditional updates before launching Call of Duty.
To express our gratitude for the community’s understanding as we prepared for Black Ops 6, the Call of Duty team at Activision is offering a special gift to players. This gift includes a pack of in-game items such as:
Preparing for the Black Ops 6 Open Beta
The update is primarily being rolled out to ready the Call of Duty HQ launcher for the debut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Starting from August 28, you can pre-load the Beta content for Black Ops 6, with the Beta itself going live on August 30. If you already have Call of Duty HQ installed, the Beta will automatically update for you. For newcomers or those without Call of Duty HQ, the beta can be downloaded from the Xbox store, PC Game Pass App, or Microsoft Store. Players on Steam, Battle.net, and PlayStation can also find the beta in their respective stores.
After the Beta concludes, I’ll notice that my Modern Warfare 3 Season 6 update has silently removed all its content on its own.
The size of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 file is still being determined since the game is currently in its final stages of refining and enhancing performance before launch. Earlier rumors suggesting a file size of around 300 GB have been proven false. Further optimizations and adjustments to the Call of Duty HQ will eventually reduce the necessary storage space for the game.
Future updates to Call of Duty HQ
Despite frequent jests about file size within the Call of Duty community, the user interface (UI) design of High-Quality (HQ) has been a persistent issue for players since Modern Warfare 2’s release in 2022. The UI layout presented with MW2 and Warzone 2.0 bore resemblance to a video streaming platform, featuring endless rightward scrolling rectangular boxes of options. This design element led to cumbersome scrolling that often resulted in overlooking items located in the middle. Although updates have been made to the user interface with Modern Warfare 3 and post-launch content, the introduction of Black Ops 6 will bring significant changes to the Call of Duty HQ UI.
In a forthcoming update around mid-October, just prior to the release of Black Ops 6, the main page for Call of Duty will undergo a change. This revamped page will display all the latest content in one convenient view without needing to scroll. Both the latest Call of Duty game and Call of Duty: Warzone will be given prominent placement on this landing page. Other Call of Duty titles can be accessed either through your personal library or by clicking on the Last Played tile.
Pre-orders are now open for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6! Our handy guide will assist you in deciding between the Vault Edition and the standard editions of Black Ops 6 to ensure you get the perfect fit for your gaming needs.
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2024-08-16 02:44