With the launch of Season 3 this week, *Call of Duty: Black Ops 6* and *Warzone* are set to undergo a significant transformation that's stirring some concerns within the PC community, particularly about potential impacts on matchmaking queue times.
Activision released the Season 3 patch notes, confirming a major overhaul in regular Multiplayer. The update separates settings for Multiplayer Ranked Play and *Call of Duty: Warzone* Ranked Play, introducing a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches. Here's how the crossplay options will work across these three settings starting 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 cautioned that selecting "On (Consoles Only)" may lead to longer matchmaking queue times, and opting for "Off" will definitely result in longer waits. The introduction of console-only crossplay for regular Multiplayer has sparked worry among some in the *Call of Duty* PC community, fearing extended queue times due to console players potentially opting out of matches with PC players.
Cheating has long been a thorn in the side of *Call of Duty*, especially on PC, where Activision has admitted cheating is more prevalent. Console players often disable crossplay to avoid PC cheaters, which some PC players see as unfair. This sentiment was echoed by several community members:
“As a PC player…. hate this change but I get it,” said redditor exjr_. “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.”
“This is awful for PC players because this just killed PC,” added X / Twitter user @GKeepnclassy. “Terrible idea because now PC players that ARE NOT cheating are being penalized. This is bullshit.”
"My lobbies barely fill already to being with on PC due to sbmm," said @CBBMack. "This will without a doubt make it worse. Time to plug in the console I guess."
Some PC players are frustrated and believe Activision should enhance its anti-cheat measures rather than segregating PC players. Redditor MailConsistent1344 commented, "Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players."
Activision has invested heavily in combating cheating, with notable successes recently, such as the shutdown of *Phantom Overlay* and several other cheat providers. Despite these efforts, cheating remains a persistent issue. Activision has promised enhanced anti-cheat technology with the launch of Season 3, which will be crucial as the return of Verdansk to *Warzone* is expected to draw a large influx of players.
However, many in the community believe that the casual console player base may not even notice these new settings. Most players simply enjoy unranked Multiplayer without delving into patch notes or settings. As a result, the majority might continue playing with crossplay enabled by default.
Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce addressed the PC player concerns in a social media post:
“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,” TheXclusiveAce said.
“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 remains to be seen how these changes will affect the gaming experience and whether Activision's ongoing battle against cheaters will see further progress.
