It’s been just over two years sinceCall of Duty: Warzonefirst launched as a side-mode for 2019’sModern Warfare, and installation size has been a major problem for the playerbase almost since the very start. Today, with several games' worth of assets included by default,Warzonealone is almost 100 GB, and that’s not just an issue for the players themselves.
Josh Bridge, theCall of Duty: Warzonelive operations lead at Raven Software, recently sat down for an interview with TeeP and got asked if there were any plans for a map rotation anytime soon. The answer was simultaneously obvious and surprisingly straightforward, and it plainly described the amount of technical debt thatCODdevelopers need to deal with to supportWarzone.
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The “install and reinstall sizes are f****g crazy,” said Bridge while talking to TeeP, explaining that installation size problems are the main reason why there aren’t multiple rotating maps present inWarzoneat any given moment. Content updates such as the recentrevamp of Rebirth Island inWarzoneare the developers' current way of dealing with players map fatigue, but since much of the player base is still stuck with last-gen 500 GB consoles, Bridge says that Raven needs to keep them in mind and attempt to keep the installation size as low as possible.
The technology that is used to run and maintainWarzonewas initially designed for medium-scale objective-based multiplayer matches fromModern Warfare, and the visual fidelity and data requirements of the levels reflect this choice. Eventhe now-removed Verdansk map forWarzonecannot be added as an optional alternative to the current Caldera level. As Bridge explained it, “Verdansk was never authored with the idea that 180 weapons were going to be added to it,” which means that the roster of available content is a problem for developers.
Bridge did say, however, that introducing map rotation is a long-term goal forWarzone, even if it isn’t possible to implement this feature at this time. This could be interpreted as a potential design goal for theleakedCall of Duty: Warzone 2, as Activision and itsCall of Dutydevelopers are bound to be looking at ways to future-proof theWarzonesequel properly, so that it can support an even more comprehensive post-launch content schedule.
It’s clear that simply throwing more maps into the mix wouldn’t be a good decision, especially ifWarzonewants to keep its place amongthe best battle royales of 2022. Bridge himself admitted that the game loses players whenever there’s a big new update, and those have been a problem for years. Keeping all the above in mind, then, it doesn’t seem like these issues will be resolved untilWarzone 2comes out, whenever that might be.
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
