Call of Duty HQ was widely criticized when it first rolled out as a dashboard. People complained about the unnecessary downloads required and the space taken due to it. It gave gamers a hub, so they do not have to switch games frequently. But this, instead of working towards minimalism and ease of use, made things worse. Also, the HQ wasn’t anything apart from a fresh new UI on an old launcher.
Things were going smoothly when Call of Duty HQ did not exist. When the Campaign for Modern Warfare 3 entered early access. Launching the Call of Duty HQ was a necessity to play it. One first had to open the HQ to access the latest game’s campaign.
The entire procedure to launch Modern Warfare 3 in early access saw an individual clicking on Call of Duty HQ. But this is where the task was slowed down. Moving from Warzone to Multiplayer modes in Modern Warfare 2 was quick, easy and snappy. Clicking on Modern Warfare 3 would have the UI return to the desktop or Home first.
It would then open an entirely new executable called Modern Warfare 3. This took anywhere from one to one and a half minutes. It is frustrating for players to wait a minute to execute a game. Thankfully, Activision noted this and released a patch that went live when Modern Warfare 3 was launched. But this wasn’t much of an improvement as well.
One Step Forward and Two Steps Back for Call of Duty as Developers Cannot Seem to Debloat Call of Duty HQ
The recent update went live for Modern Warfare 3, and it turned around the procedure required to launch games currently available and switch between them. Before, switching between Warzone and Modern Warfare 2 was fast, but trying to launch Modern Warfare 3 was exhausting. Now, it seems like this has been reversed.
Now, when one launches Call of Duty, they are taken to the UI for Modern Warfare 3. To make things worse, this is done even if someone did not buy the latest game in the franchise. It is the same story when switching to Warzone or Modern Warfare 2, which takes the user back to the desktop, and then launches the selected game/mode.
All this confuses players, especially when Call of Duty is supposed to be the gold standard of FPS games. So many hassles with the game’s execution are something that fans don’t appreciate. It is appalling to put virtual hurdles in the way of users who didn’t buy the latest game by making them wait for around one and a half minutes to launch their game.
So many players did not switch to the latest Modern Warfare title, at least not yet. That is because of the widespread news regarding the game not being up to the mark. Call of Duty HQ was designed to keep console players in mind. On consoles, it makes sense to unify the experience supposedly.
For PC, however, Battle.net already exists, which makes the Call of Duty HQ more than redundant; it makes the latter arbitrary. All this to say, what even is the purpose of Call of Duty HQ?
What Was the Intended Use for Call of Duty HQ?
As per Activision, Call of Duty HQ was supposedly developed and rolled out to make players’ lives easier. The current events point towards everything but that. Individuals who have owned a video game for almost one year must wait twice as long to execute it. What is worse is that this also holds true for Warzone, which is a free-to-play title.
While it may be a human error, it certainly portrays the studio in a bad light. Some may even refer to this as a silly marketing gimmick from the studio. This also brings the Modern Warfare 3 ads on Xbox consoles to mind. These happened conveniently after the company’s acquisition by Microsoft and left fans furious.
Whatever it is, it wasn’t Activision’s intention when they launched Call of Duty HQ. If anything, they stated that:
Call of Duty HQ was developed to bring players benefits like Carry Forward, easier file size management, and more seamless switching between Call of Duty: Warzone and the latest annual releases,
To have a balanced perspective, it is essential to note that in some very specific cases, Call of Duty HQ does manage to do what is expected. Users can now manage the installations for various Call of Duty modules from a single point. But, overall, it seems to miss the mark.
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