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Why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 Coming to PS4/Xbox One Is Terrible News


Why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 Coming to PS4/Xbox One Is Terrible News 3
Credit: Activision

Amidst the flurry of revelations and announcements about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) and Warzone 2, there have been some surprising discoveries. One of the biggest things that has come out is confirmation that Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 will be coming to last-gen consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, as well as next-gen consoles and PC. So, in this article, we'll explain why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 coming to PS4/Xbox One is terrible news.

Problems for Modern Warfare II

Why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 Coming to PS4/Xbox One Is Terrible News
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Credit: Activision

One of the major points of the marketing for Modern Warfare II is how the game is supposed to evolve Call of Duty and usher in not just a new generation of games but a whole new CoD 2.0 era for the franchise. Big picture, this game is supposed to be different. However, this isn't really possible if the game is coming to PS4 and Xbox One.

The problem is that, technically, Modern Warfare (2019) pushed the PS4 and Xbox One near their limits. There isn't much more that can be done on that 2013-era hardware in terms of graphical fidelity, scale, and all of the things that you might expect from the next generation of Call of Duty.

Related: Everything You Need to Know: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) Gameplay Reveal

No, Modern Warfare didn't squeeze out every last drop of power from last-gen consoles, but the upgrades Modern Warfare II brings on PS4 and Xbox One will necessarily be modest at best. Beyond that, though, this means the upgrades everywhere from Modern Warfare (2019) will be relatively modest, too.

See, in a crossplatform crossplay world, Activision can't make one version of the game substantially different than another, as that would be unfair. Plus, most Call of Duty fans are still on PS4s and Xbox Ones as PS5 and Series X are still hard to find for many, and as always, the PC audience for Call of Duty remains proportionally small. So, the versions of the game will all have to have reasonable levels of parity between them for crossplay to work.

All of this comes together to mean that from a technical perspective it's going to be tough for Modern Warfare II to be majorly different from Modern Warfare. Of course, in terms of game design and everything else, Modern Warfare II could very well be a massive departure, but the way this new game is being marketed is going to leave many fans disappointed when they realize Modern Warfare II will look and play a lot like Modern Warfare.

Related: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Won't Have Mod Support, and Here's Why

Plus, all of this comes on top of Activision's move to charge $70 for Modern Warfare II over the traditional $60, even for the last-gen versions on PS4 and Xbox One. The industry has begun charging $70 for games, but this has been for next-gen games on PS5 and Series X, while Activision is now charging a next-gen price for a last-gen system. This is especially bitter a pill to swallow when you think about how much Activision is advertising the game as a new era of Call of Duty when inevitably it has to run on PS4 and Xbox One.

Problems for Warzone 2

Why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 Coming to PS4/Xbox One Is Terrible News 2
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Credit: Activision

The same problems apply to Warzone 2 that apply to Modern Warfare II but even more so. Warzone is more technically demanding than CoD's traditional multiplayer, so major innovation would naturally require more powerful hardware, especially if Infinity Ward plans on adding A.I. soldiers to Warzone 2 in some capacity.

However, Warzone 2 coming to last-gen consoles is especially tough to hear when you think about FOV. See, Warzone doesn't have a FOV slider on console, but it's always had one on PC, while Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard managed to have FOV sliders on both last-gen and next-gen consoles. As you might expect, a FOV slider in Warzone on console has been the number one thing the community has been asking for, considering the major advantage expanding your FOV gives you.

Related: Sledgehammer Games May Never Make Another Call of Duty

The problem is that a FOV slider hasn't come to the game on console, according to the developers, because the last-gen consoles can't handle it. Then, the devs don't want to add one to next-gen consoles because they fear making the game too unfair, advantaging some players with a FOV slider but not others. Of course, this doesn't make sense considering PC crossplay is a thing in Call of Duty, but all of this made sense, in some way, when gamers thought Warzone 2 would be coming exclusively to next-gen consoles and PC where everybody could have a FOV slider.

Since this isn't the case, the new speculation is that Warzone 2 won't have a FOV slider on console for the same reasons, further empowering PC players to take full advantage of their superior platform at the expense of console gamers and denying the community the number one thing they've been asking for years for. Naturally, this is all unconfirmed so far, but it only stands to reason a more graphically demanding Warzone 2 won't be easier for last-gen to accommodate a FOV slider with.

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