New Console-Only Crossplay Option Penalizes Non-Cheating PC Players in Call of Duty

With the launch of Season 3 this week, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone are undergoing significant changes that have sparked concerns among the PC community regarding their matchmaking queue times.

Activision released the Season 3 patch notes, confirming a major update to regular Multiplayer. The update separates the Multiplayer Ranked Play and Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play settings and introduces a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches.

When Season 3 launches on April 4, the three settings—Multiplayer Ranked Play, Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked—will offer the following crossplay options:

• 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 warned that selecting On (Consoles Only) may negatively impact matchmaking queue times, while choosing Off will definitely have a negative effect on queue times.

The introduction of console-only crossplay in regular Multiplayer has raised concerns among the Call of Duty PC community. They fear that console players opting out of matchmaking with PC players could lead to longer queue times for them. This concern stems from the game's reputation for cheating, which is more prevalent on PC. Activision has confirmed that cheating is more common on PC, noting that unfair deaths attributed to console players are more likely due to 'intel advantage' than actual cheating. As a result, some console players disable crossplay to avoid potential cheaters from PC.

PC players have expressed frustration over this change. For instance, Redditor exjr_ commented, “As a PC player…. hate this change but I get it. 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.” On X / Twitter, @GKeepnclassy stated, “This is awful for PC players because this just killed PC. Terrible idea because now PC players that ARE NOT cheating are being penalized. This is bullshit.” @CBBMack added, “My lobbies barely fill already to being with on PC due to sbmm. This will without a doubt make it worse. Time to plug in the console I guess.”

Some PC players argue that Activision should focus on improving its anti-cheat systems rather than isolating PC players. Redditor MailConsistent1344 remarked, “Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players.”

Activision has invested heavily in fighting Call of Duty cheats, with recent successes including the shutdown of Phantom Overlay and four other cheat providers ahead of Verdansk's return to Warzone. Despite these efforts, the battle against cheating remains challenging. Activision has promised enhanced anti-cheat technology with the launch of Season 3, which may impact PC players' experience, especially with the expected influx of players due to Verdansk's return.

However, many in the community, including Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce, believe that the majority of console players, who are often casual gamers, may not even notice or utilize these new settings. Most players tend to stick to unranked Multiplayer and may not delve into settings or patch notes. TheXclusiveAce noted, “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. 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 community and whether they will help in Activision's ongoing fight against cheaters.