Warzone Is Being Separated From Premium Call of Duty Games

In an attempt to reduce the increasingly large download size of Call of Duty games, Warzone is being officially separated from premium Call of Duty games. The Activision developers are gearing up to make significant changes to the Call of Duty HQ launcher on PC, so those interested in Warzone can only download files specifically for Warzone.

To allow this huge event to happen, they are slowly and carefully rolling out the new updates to the launcher. This is not only to ensure that things don’t break along the way but also to reduce the install size of the other Call of Duty games by any amount. To ensure that the games are reduced in size, Activision will expand its stream tech and add more content to the streaming pool instead.

Doing this means that they will cycle the less frequently used content in the streaming cache and continue to expand what content can be streamed in general to lessen the load on the players. One part of this is the “On-Demand Texture Streaming” option, which will be changed to “On-Demand High Quality Streaming.” While that may not sound too different from what it is now, there will be two options for players to utilize. One of the options will prioritize higher fidelity graphics that require more bandwidth, while the other forgoes graphical quality and uses less bandwidth.

By doing this mass revamp, they hope it will make other games on the launcher easier to access, with players only having to download specifically what they want to play. Unfortunately for some, players must download bigger files to pave the way for smaller download sizes. This is a lengthy process that Activision will be sinking a lot of time into.

PlayStation 5 users are most likely going to be the unhappiest of them all, as they will have to download four separate chunks in Season 5 Reloaded. This includes the initial system-level update and three more that are triggered by opening Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. However, this is currently only necessary for current players who are playing now and continuing to keep up with the latest iterations of the franchise. Those completely new to the franchise won’t have to deal with this.

Activision has posted its schedule for the big revamp and is making way for Black Ops 6. Below is the schedule people can expect:

• Reorganizing game content, part of the Season 5 Reloaded update (August 21)
• Black Ops 6 Open Beta (August 30)
• New User Interface (Mid-October)
• Black Ops 6 Launch (October 25)

In addition, anyone who logs in after the Season 5 Reloaded update will get a package of Battle Pass Tier Skips and Double XP Tokens. As a reminder, Black Ops 6 will be available on day one via Game Pass.