The ‘Call Of Duty’ Launcher Needs To Go

Call Of Duty HQ is an abomination. I can think of no better word for this utterly unnecessary software. It is a launcher-within-a-launcher. I already play games like Black Ops 6 and Warzone through game launchers. These days, I play both games through Steam. In the past, I’ve used Battle.net. You can also play them on Xbox or PlayStation which have their own ecosystems that make a separate Call Of Duty launcher both redundant and obnoxious.

Call Of Duty HQ is not just an unnecessary layer of clicks between players and the game. It’s unwieldy and opaque. Currently, if I want to access an older title like Modern Warfare III, I have to open Steam then open Call Of Duty HQ, then I’m taken to a screen that shows this:

This tiled space that looks more like Hulu than a video game menu allows me to hop into multiplayer or . . . Season 2, which is just more multiplayer. It gives me quick access to Warzone, which is nice, though I could have simply launched Warzone separately. Then it lists a few playlists and an Item Shop bundle. The idea is that I have quick and easy access to all this stuff, but the reality is I’m just one more menu away from what I actually wanted to play.

Let’s say I wanted to play Black Ops 6. If it was just a title in my Steam library, I could just click on it and it would open and ideally take me right to the main menu where I could click on whatever mode I wanted to play. Instead, I have to open Call Of Duty HQ and go to this menu. From here, I can go to the main Black Ops 6 menu. But to find any of my other, earlier Call Of Duty titles, I have to click on the arrow on the right side of this menu, which will take me here:

This might seem handy. All these games listed in one menu. But which are installed? Which do I own? I actually own all of these, but I know for a fact that several I own on Battle.net rather than Steam. Worse, if I want to play Modern Warfare II or Modern Warfare III (which I own on Steam) I have to click on the tile and it will completely shut down my current game and relaunch into the older game. That’s two extra menus and a total restart just to launch the game I actually want to play. How does this benefit consumers in any way? How does this improve the gaming experience?

The obvious reason why Call Of Duty HQ exists is to integrate Warzone and the current multiplayer game into one package so that players can jump back and forth between the two and share the Battle Pass and so forth. I understand why Activision and its studios would want this, but this gets to yet another massive problem with Call Of Duty these days: Warzone should not be tied so closely to multiplayer! Both the free battle royale game and the yearly multiplayer release suffer from this marriage. Warzone needs to be its own thing, with its own mechanics and weapons and movement system and pacing. It doesn’t work to change it to fit the multiplayer mechanics and arsenal each year, especially since it never really does a good job at implementing those.

It’s time for a divorce. Get rid of Call Of Duty HQ and let each game exist as a playable title in Steam or whichever app you play games from. Break up Warzone and multiplayer and let the teams behind each of these titles focus on making them the best they can be without having to cater to the other and its audience. And let players play the games they’ve purchased directly without jumping through all these silly, cumbersome hoops. It’s just ridiculous at this point. There’s no excuse to keep our games imprisoned in a launcher nobody wants.