Call of Duty has become an absolute hard drive hog in recent years, with 2023’s entry managing to consume over 200GB of storage in some cases. That all might be about to change, however, as Activision has announced major changes to the way it’ll be handing installs with this year’s Black Ops 6, promising “smaller and more customised downloads” as a result.
Activision shared the news in a post on its Call of Duty blog, explaining its optimisation work will begin with a revamp of “the experience formerly known as Call of Duty HQ”. This revamp is set to roll out over the course of several updates ahead of Black Ops 6’s October launch, and will promises to introduce a streamlined interface, direct access to games, more control over downloads, and expanded texture streaming technology to reduce file sizes.
A first update to reorganise game content arrives on 21st August. Then, following Black Ops 6’s open beta on 30th August, a new user interface and other “remaining updates” are scheduled for mid-October. After these “larger initial updates”, Activision says future Call of Duty downloads will decrease in size and existing files will take up less space on players’ device.
Key to these plans is the decision to decouple Call of Duty: Warzone from other titles, meaning it’ll no longer be installed by default. Instead, whenever players purchase an annual Call of Duty title, they’ll only be required to install its files – but they can “opt in” to a Warzone install during that process, or download it separately at a future point.
Additionally, players will have new options where Call of Duty’s expanded texture streaming tech is concerned. Activision says its new capabilities mean it 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”. And once the tech is introduced, players can choose between Optimised streaming, which supplies high-fidelity graphical quality at the expense of higher internet bandwidth usage, or minimal streaming, which reduces graphical quality and bandwidth requirements.
Activision says the first update players will need to download as part of these changes is a “big one”, but will ultimately see Call of Duty’s footprint decrease due to its file optimisations. The publisher also notes this initial update will arrive for PlayStation 5 players across four separate downloads “due to differences in file organisation”. There’s more detail in Activision’s blog, but the takeaway is a simple one. “As a result of these updates,” the company writes, “Black Ops 6 will be a smaller download at launch than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and certain tiers of Game Pass on 25th October. And if you’re curious about this year’s Zombies mode, developer Treyarch has been sharing initial details over the last few weeks.