With the launch of Season 3 this week, *Call of Duty: Black Ops 6* and *Warzone* are introducing a significant change that has sparked concern among some members of the PC community regarding potential impacts on their matchmaking queue times. Activision's Season 3 patch notes have confirmed a major update to regular Multiplayer, separating the settings for Multiplayer Ranked Play and *Call of Duty: Warzone* Ranked Play, and introducing a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches.
Starting April 4, each of these three settings—Multiplayer Ranked Play, *Call of Duty: Warzone* Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked—will feature 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 explicitly warned that selecting 'On (Consoles Only)' might lead to longer matchmaking queue times, and choosing 'Off' will definitely result in increased queue times. The introduction of console-only crossplay in regular Multiplayer is what has particularly alarmed the *Call of Duty* PC community, as they fear it could lead to longer wait times for matches. The concern stems from the game's history with cheating, which is reportedly more common on PC. In response, many console players disable crossplay to avoid encounters with PC cheaters, a decision that could now potentially impact PC players' ability to find games quickly.
The reaction from the PC community has been mixed, with some expressing frustration over the change. For instance, redditor exjr_ stated, "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." Similarly, X / Twitter user @GKeepnclassy commented, "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." Another user, @CBBMack, noted, "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 within the PC community argue that Activision should focus on improving its anti-cheat measures rather than isolating PC players. Redditor MailConsistent1344 suggested, "Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players." Activision has indeed invested heavily in fighting cheating, with recent successes against cheat providers like Phantom Overlay and several others ahead of the anticipated return of Verdansk to *Warzone*. Despite these efforts, the battle against cheating remains challenging, and Season 3 promises enhanced anti-cheat technology.
However, many in the community point out that the majority of console players, who make up a significant portion of *Call of Duty*'s casual audience, may not even be aware of these new settings. Most players jump into unranked Multiplayer for casual fun and may never adjust their settings, remaining oblivious to the option of console-only crossplay. This perspective was echoed by *Call of Duty* YouTuber TheXclusiveAce, who responded to PC player concerns by saying, "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 will be fascinating to observe how these changes affect the game's community and whether Activision's ongoing efforts to combat cheating will yield noticeable improvements for PC players.
