Dev responds to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War crashing issues on Xbox Series X
Consider playing something else for a while.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
What you need to know
A new Call of Duty comes around every year, for better or worse, and this year brought usCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which earned a middling review from us due to its lackluster multiplayer. The newly launched game has also seen a ton of issues on multiple platforms, but especially on next-gen consoles like theXbox Series XandXbox Series S, andPlaystation 5. One of the more serious issues is howBlack Ops Cold War is consistently crashing Xbox Series Xs, and even completely bricking them in some cases.
Reddit user Junesfoshiz(viaCharlieIntel) shed some light on these issues, discussing how Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War crashed their system every 4-5 games, until eventually their console would simply not start up anymore. Reddit user FoxhoundFPS, a Treyarch developer, responded to this thread and to the reported crashing issues afflicting the next-gen powerhouse.
According to the dev, they’re investigating “all crashes,” and his “immediate recommendations are to make sure that you’re using the correct version for your platform. Players have also shared that disabling Ray Tracing on XSX has helped.” Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War also has aTrello boardto monitor community issues and to provide progress updates on incoming fixes and more.
In our own investigation, we found that the most likely culprit behind the crashes is related to how Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War handles next-gen upgrades. Rather than useXbox Smart Delivery, an intelligent system that installs the best possible version of a game for your console automatically (and for free), Black Ops Cold War has two different versions of the base game to choose from, and only the more expensive one includes the upgrade for next-gen consoles. Even with the cross-gen version, however, the Xbox Series X will still play the Xbox One X version, leading to crashes and eventually more serious issues.
It certainly doesn’t help thatCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has extremely confusing box art and messaging.
If you’re having these issues, make sure you’re playing the correct version of Black Ops Cold War for your system, turn off ray tracing for a while, and consider playing another of theBest Shooter Games for Xbox. If your Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War experience is great, consider one of theBest Controllers for Xbox Series X|Sto ensure you never lag behind, and one of theBest External SSDs for Xbox Series X|Sso you don’t run out of space for this massive game.
Hey, it’s another Call of Duty!
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War explores the dark times of the West’s battle with communism. With support for 120 FPS on the Xbox Series X, with full cross-play and support for mouse and keyboard play, this is the most PC-like Call of Duty on Xbox Series X yet.
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter@BoddyZachary.
