The CoD HQ launcher has to be one of the least popular additions the series has received in recent years. The act of launching, and relaunching, just to get to the game you want to play instead of the game the app has decided you should play is torturous. Thankfully, there may be change on the horizon, as the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 developer is looking to get it behaving a little better.
If you’ve been out of the game for a while you may not be familiar with CoD HQ. Launched last year, it is designed to let players hop between different Call of Duty games, such as going from the current yearly CoD to Warzone without having to exit entirely. In effect, however, it’s been a problem for fans of the legendary FPS games since inception. At Summer Game Fest we got to speak to Treyarch, developer behind Call of Duty Black Ops 6, about what the future holds for CoD HQ and how it’s handling community feedback.
“We hear the mixed responses and you can expect a refresh of the launcher coming with Black Ops 6,” Treyarch senior director of production Yale Miller explains. “In terms of benefits we know that a lot of players interact with multiple Call of Duty games at the same time. So I think the opportunity is there but we need to do a better job of it.”
One oft-criticized aspect of the CoD HQ app, the necessity of the app, with some players confused why they suddenly need a launcher for Call of Duty which links the games under one roof. “You can go to a single place and share data between different titles, whether it’s Warzone and a premium title,” Miller continues. “If you just want to play the premium title, you should be able to just play it and not pay for a bunch of other stuff. But if you’re someone who wants to play the premium title plus Warzone you can actually share data so you’re not paying twice.”
The CoD HQ’s UI also has come under the microscope, with the team trying to make launching your desired Call of Duty quicker and easier. “We’ve literally sat in an office multiple times with our UX director and counted how many button presses it takes in order to boot up Black Ops 6,” associate design director Matt Scronce tells us. “We look at how many button presses, how long it takes, all these things we’re looking at across the board,” Miller adds.
When looking at the mixed responses to the app, there’s a few reasons behind it, according to Treyarch. “Part of it is the technical hurdles around it and doing something new, which we’re working on trying to do a better job of,” Miller says. “There’s also the visual delivery system and there’s frankly been confusion on those things, which we want to do better.”
This interview is part of PCGamesN’s ongoing coverage of Summer Game Fest and while you wait for the incoming changes for the beleaguered CoD HQ launcher, you can check out the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 release date for an idea of when they’ll land.
If you need something to fill the time until then, why not take a look at our guide to the next Warzone season release date, or our best action-adventure games you can play right now.
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Additional reporting by Lauren Bergin for PCGamesN at Summer Game Fest.
