As We Prep For Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Activision Strips Modern Warfare 2 and 3 From Call of Duty HQ, Making Them Standalone Games Again

Activision has unshackled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from the main Call of Duty HQ launcher.

In a little connection posted to societal media, steadfast Activision confirmed players with either Modern Warfare 2 oregon 3 volition beryllium capable to "access them directly" and without going into HQ archetypal erstwhile they've redownloaded caller installs of the shooter games.

Any bequest contented relating to either crippled "within the main Call of Duty install" volition beryllium automagically removed travel August 7 to "free up retention space," though a aboriginal tweet clarifies "Call of Duty: Warzone contented specified arsenic MW2/MW3 operators and weapons volition not beryllium impacted by this change."

Call of Duty HQ is the level from which Call of Duty games are launched, antecedently making it intolerable to leap consecutive into Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, oregon conflict royale Warzone via their ain dedicated apps. Instead, players indispensable log into Call of Duty HQ, find their crippled of prime via a Netflix-style launcher, past load the app. At the time, Call of Duty HQ was required to play either Modern Warfare 3, 2, oregon Warzone, and dissimilar parts of those games, Call of Duty HQ itself cannot beryllium deleted if you privation to play.

At the time, Activision said Call of Duty HQ "was developed to bring players benefits similar Carry Forward, easier record size management, and much seamless switching betwixt Call of Duty: Warzone and the latest yearly releases," but that wasn't the world galore players reported, arsenic getting to a selected crippled oregon mode could beryllium truly time-consuming, peculiarly with endless prompts to "update to restart." It besides takes up a tremendous magnitude of abstraction connected console.

Activision didn't springiness a crushed for the change, and it doesn't look HQ haters are going to beryllium relinquished of the launcher immoderate clip soon, but it's just to suggest this is conscionable a mode of tidying up HQ up of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's merchandise aboriginal this year.

As for the adjacent Call of Duty game? Developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — which was announced astatine the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 past period — is the archetypal ever consecutive merchandise wrong the Black Ops sub-series. Matt Cox, General Manager of Call of Duty, insisted that “as a team, our imaginativeness from the commencement was to make a back-to-back bid acquisition for our players that embraced the uniqueness of the Black Ops sub-franchise.” It's acceptable to prima Milo Ventimiglia, Kiernan Shipka, and Michael Rooker, with Ventimiglia portraying David Mason, Shipka arsenic caller quality Emma Kagen, and Rooker reprising his Black Ops 2 relation of Mike Harper.

We cognize it'll diagnostic the Skirmish and Overload multiplayer modes arsenic good a 20v20 wingsuit enactment arsenic details of a developer-only Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 playtest were accidentally released to each fans connected the Call of Duty app. Whoops.

Last month, Activision pulled arguable adverts placed wrong Black Ops 6 and Warzone loadouts, insisting they were a “feature test” published “in error.” It’s worthy remembering that Black Ops 6 is simply a premium, $70 game, and this year’s Black Ops 7 is expected to leap to $80 aft Microsoft said that gamers volition spot Xbox charging $79.99 for new, first-party games astir the vacation season.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.