Is Call of Duty: Warzone Getting a FOV Slider on Console?

Published: 01 Sep 2021 1:10 PM +00:00 Updated: 20 Oct 2021 4:52 AM +00:00

For console players of Call of Duty: Warzone, life has been bleak. The game has never had a FOV slider on console, while it has always had one on PC, a platform console gamers can crossplay with. This has led to many saying PC gamers have an unfair advantage in Warzone, which comes in addition to the advantage PC gamers using mouse and keyboard already have over console gamers.

In this article, we'll tell you if Warzone is getting a FOV slider, when it would come, and why it's taking so long to arrive.

While there are many articles online that say it has been ‘confirmed' Warzone on console will not get a FOV slider, this isn't actually the case. Recently, in the lead-up to Season 5 of Warzone and Black Ops Cold War, a leak suggested that a FOV slider would come to Warzone on console with the launch of Season 5.

This specific leak was commented on by a representative from Activision who said there was no truth to the rumor that a FOV slider was coming in Season 5. It's important to understand this rep meant to say a slider would not be coming with Season 5, not that it wasn't coming at all.

In fact, it has been confirmed that a FOV slider for Warzone is actively being looked into at Raven. In April of 2021, Associate Creative Director of Warzone Amos Hodge confirmed that Raven knew players wanted a FOV slider on console and that the team was actively looking into implementing it, though he stopped short of providing a timeframe.

Many suspect the delay is due to technical reasons: the game becomes more graphically demanding as the field of view increases and more is visible on screen. This could become a problem on older consoles like PS4 or Xbox One.

Technically, this is true. However, Black Ops Cold War already has a FOV slider on consoles, even last generation consoles like PS4 and Xbox One. While Warzone is likely more demanding than Cold War with its larger maps and higher player counts, even Cold War's large-scale Fireteam mode supports a FOV slider on consoles.

Suffice it to say that technically speaking, a FOV slider in Warzone is almost certainly possible, and it's absolutely possible on next-gen consoles like PS5 and Xbox Series X. And even if the feature did cost gamers some frames on older consoles, the overwhelming majority of console players would happily make that trade.

As it stands now, PC gamers can increase their FOV all the way up to 120, which is a far cry from the console default of 80. In comparison, Warzone on console feels tight and claustrophobic: It's often difficult to see nearby enemies because of how little of the world is on screen at any given time.

This comes on top of the fact that PC gamers can have far higher framerates than console gamers, change their resolutions at will, and adjust the graphical settings of the game to suit their preferences. Plus, most PC gamers play with mouse and keyboard, an input method that offers far greater accuracy than a controller, which many also feel is unfair. This has led to the Call of Duty community also crying out for input-based matchmaking: a setting that would allow gamers to crossplay with anyone using the same input method as them.

With the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Vanguard and its following integration into Warzone, many are also wondering if Vanguard will have a FOV slider. Like Cold War, Vanguard's Alpha did not have a FOV slider. Currently, it remains to be seen if also like Cold War a FOV slider will make an appearance in the game's beta release.

It's likely both Vanguard and Warzone will get FOV sliders on console, as gamers want it and the feature already exists in the current Call of Duty, but when we can expect them to arrive is unclear. While likely by the launch of Vanguard or its integration into Warzone, we will have to wait and see for official confirmation.

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