Unlike 2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which required an internet connection but lacked a single-player campaign, the 2019 Modern Warfare remake was the first Call of Duty game on PC to require a constant internet connection while offering a full single-player experience—a trend that has continued ever since. Console players, however, have been able to access single-player content without being constantly online, albeit without their custom skins and other features. This changes with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which will be always-online for everyone, regardless of platform.
According to the CoD blog, “To deliver the highest-quality visuals while also reducing the game’s overall storage space on your hard drive, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will use texture streaming across all game modes. This means you’ll need a continuous internet connection to play any game mode, including Campaign. If you’re on a console, Campaign can be played without a premium subscription service such as Game Pass Core or PlayStation Plus.”
Typically, “texture streaming” refers to loading high-resolution textures into memory from your SSD during gameplay. However, Activision’s approach involves streaming these textures from the cloud to minimize the game’s installation size. This is significant given the ever-increasing storage demands of Call of Duty games, with Modern Warfare 3 requiring up to 213GB of space. Black Ops 6 will require 149GB for installation, or just 78GB if you already have COD HQ and Warzone installed. Console players, though, will need a whopping 300GB of free space, which will be reduced after the game’s launch.
One of Black Ops 6’s standout features is “omnimovement,” which allows players to sprint and dive in multiple directions, not just forward. More details about this feature and the game’s multiplayer aspects will be revealed during the Call of Duty: Next showcase on August 26. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is slated for release on October 25.
