Call of Duty will reduce big downloads, but a big download is needed first

If you’ve ever groaned at the download needed to begin working through any Call of Duty achievements, then you’re in luck, as Activision has detailed its plans to decrease the Call of Duty download sizes and the space which existing files take up, its methods of “optimizing” how you interact with your Call of Duty library, and more. On top of this, to thank players for bearing with the process, Activision will be handing out free in-game consumables.Activision will be “optimizing the way players interact with and access their Call of Duty library””As we look ahead to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, we’ve been working on ways to improve the Call of Duty experience by optimizing menu navigation and offering smaller and more customized downloads, plus other benefits for your Call of Duty library,” the Call of Duty team says. “We’ve heard your feedback, and along with our own testing and learnings, have worked to optimize the way players access and download Call of Duty. This begins by revamping the experience formerly known as Call of Duty HQ.” The plan is for there to be a more “streamlined interface,” reduced file sizes, “more control over your downloads,” and “direct access to games.”So, to fight big downloads, Call of Duty first needs a big download. After these larger updates, however, future downloads “will decrease in size and existing files will take up less space on your device,” and Activision says Black Ops 6 will end up as a smaller download than Modern Warfare 3 was at launch. The first big update will reorgainze game files as well as “separating Call of Duty: Warzone from the default download for annual titles.” This means that going forward, “when you purchase an annual title, you will only download the files for that game by default,” and can choose to download Warzone at the same time or separately. The first larger update will also bring changes to texture streaming, with older, less-used content to be moved to a streaming cache, “avoiding the need to download it directly to your device’s storage.” While this is all being sorted out, Activision explains that “you may see older content that briefly appears at a lower quality until the streaming cache has fully loaded.” In addition, you’ll get “more control” over content streaming with two options: the default “Optimized” option where “content appears at a high-fidelity graphical quality [with] increased internet bandwidth usage,” and the “Minimal” option, where you get “reduced” graphical quality and lower internet bandwidth usage.This first big update will be on August 21, at the same time as Season 5 Reloaded, and Activision again promises that it will all “ultimately lead to a better experience.” As a thank you for engaging with the download, players will get a free community pack of ten one-hour double player XP tokens, ten one-hour double weapon XP tokens, and ten Battle Pass token tier skips. You can get all of these after starting up Call of Duty when Season Reloaded arrives.More updates will follow with the Black Ops 6 open beta on August 30, the new user interface as the “final preparation” ahead of Black Ops 6’s full launch in October, Black Ops 6’s actual launch, and then Season One at some point afterwards. You can preload the open beta from August 28, and if you’ve installed Call of Duty and the Season 5 Reloaded update, the beta should be around 35GB for Xbox Series X|S as an “automatic update to existing install” and 17GB for Xbox One. Black Ops 6 is out on October 25, and it seems as if the Xbox achievements might already have leaked.



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