Activision is doing Call of Duty fans a solid and optimizing the size of the game downloads. Every year a new Call of Duty release comes out and gamers around the world issue a collective sigh at the utterly massive size of the download files. It’s one issue that has persisted through several Call of Duty game launches and one that many players no doubt wish would change.
It looks like Activision is finally addressing this issue in the lead-up to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Players will also be able to take part in the Open Beta that’s happening on August 30. In a post on the official Call of Duty blog, the development team talks about how it will optimize the game in several ways. One big way is by shrinking the size of the game downloads so they don’t take up as much space.
As part of optimizing downloads, Call of Duty will separate Warzone from the default file
Warzone isn’t going anywhere. It’ll still be an available live-service free-to-play multiplayer release. However, it will no longer be packaged as part of the default game file download as it has been. This is one of the main ways Activision is helping to make things more optimized for players with each new main game release. Warzone is arguably one of the larger portions of the game download file each year. So removing it from the default file will go a long way in shrinking things down for people who don’t plan on playing it.
For example, some players only end up playing through the campaign and the regular multiplayer. Or in the case of Black Ops 6, the upcoming wave-based Zombies mode that’s returning. By not being required to install Warzone alongside the main game file, players are getting some huge quality of life changes. It saves space on the hard drive and it will cut down on the download times. Ultimately, it’ll be a huge benefit. Of course, you can still choose to download Warzone only if you want to. Warzone will also be an opt-in download for those who want to grab everything all at once with the installation.
Activision says it will start separating Warzone from the main game download file beginning on August 21. So it’ll be all set up by the time Black Ops 6 launches later this Fall.
Activision is going to expand on the streaming tech to reduce file sizes
Another way Activision is shrinking file sizes is by expanding its use of streaming technology. This is already in use with games like Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and it’s a big part of how it was able to keep that game file size so small on Android and iOS devices. It also speeds up the load times since the game doesn’t have to render everything completely all at once. Now this is just for the textures. But this can be a large part of the file size download.
How this works is the game stores some of the textures in a streaming cache. Activision says it will cycle the less frequently used content in this cache, which helps you avoid needing to download it directly to your device storage. ” With these capabilities, we can cycle content that is less frequently used by players to a streaming cache, avoiding the need to download it directly to your device’s storage. Going forward, more content will be included in this cache. With this change, you may see older content that briefly appears at a lower quality until the streaming cache has fully loaded. The resolution of content streamed from the cache will depend on what setting you select for this feature,” Activision said.
The publisher will also be “streamlining” the user interface. This new UI will be launching in mid-October.
