"New Console-Only Crossplay Option Penalizes Non-Cheating PC Players in Call of Duty"

With the launch of Season 3 this week, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone are undergoing a significant change that has raised concerns among the PC community about potential impacts on their matchmaking queue times. Activision released the Season 3 patch notes, confirming a major update to regular Multiplayer. This update separates the settings for Multiplayer Ranked Play and Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and introduces a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches.

Each of these three settings (Multiplayer Ranked Play, Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked) will offer the following crossplay options when Season 3 launches on April 4:

• On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in the selected playlists.
• On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in selected playlists.
• Off: Restricts matchmaking to your current gaming platform only in selected playlists.

Activision has warned that selecting On (Consoles Only) may negatively impact matchmaking queue times, and choosing Off will definitely lead to longer queue times.

The introduction of console-only crossplay in regular Multiplayer has sparked worry among some members of the Call of Duty PC community. They fear that console players opting out of PC matchmaking could result in longer queue times for them. This concern stems from the game's history with cheating, which is more prevalent on PC. Activision has acknowledged that cheating is more common on PC, and while console players might use 'intel advantage', the prevalence of cheats is higher on PC. As a result, many console players turn off crossplay to avoid PC cheaters.

PC players have expressed frustration over this change. For instance, Reddit user exjr_ stated, "As a PC player…. hate this change but I get it. I hope it doesn’t affect queue times for the game in the long-run so I’m not forced to buy the game on PS5 to have a good experience." Similarly, X/Twitter user @GKeepnclassy remarked, "This is awful for PC players because this just killed PC. Terrible idea because now PC players that ARE NOT cheating are being penalized. This is bullshit." Another user, @CBBMack, added, "My lobbies barely fill already to being with on PC due to sbmm. This will without a doubt make it worse. Time to plug in the console I guess."

Some PC players argue that Activision should focus on improving its anti-cheat measures rather than isolating PC players. Reddit user MailConsistent1344 commented, "Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players."

Activision has invested heavily in combating cheating, with recent successes including the shutdown of prominent cheat providers like Phantom Overlay. Despite these efforts, the battle against cheating remains challenging. With the launch of Season 3, Activision has promised enhanced anti-cheat technology, which could potentially alleviate some of the concerns from PC players, especially with the anticipated return of Verdansk to Warzone.

However, many in the Call of Duty community believe that the majority of console players, who are often casual gamers, may not even be aware of these new settings. Most players simply jump into unranked Multiplayer for a quick session and may not delve into patch notes or settings. As a result, they might continue playing with crossplay enabled by default, unaware of the option to restrict it to consoles only.

Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce addressed the concerns of PC players, stating, "I see a lot of pushback with this change from PC players concerned that they won't be able to find games in lesser played modes or that matchmaking will take too long. To be clear, PC players will still be matchmaking with the largest pool of the playerbase since that majority of players won't even notice this setting exists so they'll stick to the default or even if they are aware of it, many will choose to leave it on. If anything, it's the players that decide to turn console-only crossplay on that will be limiting their matchmaking pool but that's a choice that's now in their hands for the first time in Pubs and it's a tradeoff that many of us will be happy to make."

As Season 3 approaches for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, it will be interesting to observe whether these changes affect matchmaking and how Activision's ongoing efforts to combat cheating evolve.