Black Ops 6 Forcing Always-Online To Minimize Size Doesn’t Exactly Sound Convincing

A new Call of Duty, a new scandal. For the past few entries, this has become a norm. Every time a Call of Duty game arrives, some sort of debatable decision follows it as well. Unfortunately, no matter how much of a problem I consider it to be, Call of Duty sells like hotcakes. People will buy it no matter what.

This is precisely why the Activision Blizzard deal was such a big deal. There’s nothing that can outclass Call of Duty as a money maker, and everyone knew that. Ultimately, Microsoft reigned triumphant, and now here we are, with Call of Duty Black Ops 6 right around the corner. 

Black Ops 6 Is Always-Online

Even before Call of Duty Black Ops 6 decided to jump in, this problem has become a pretty big deal lately considering how blatantly anti-consumer it is. 

So, what exactly is always online? You know how the game industry as a whole is slowly but surely trying to take away all ownership rights from you? Digital games have always been iffy in this matter. At least physical games and offline, single-player modes had some sort of certainty, even if the servers went under.

Thoughts? I’m with actually OWNING my games (both physically and digitally)
byu/ChidoriiSour ingamecollecting

The corporate giants didn’t like that. Thus, the “always-online” tactic emerged. Games now require an internet connection even if you’re playing single-player modes, or installing the game from the disc. This makes sure the control always stays with them. When they decide to shut down the servers, it’s not the multi-player that’s going away. It’s the entire game.

You paid your hard-earned money and spent your precious time in the game? They don’t care.

dear devs who put “always online DRM” in single player games **** YOU. from someone who lives without internet 90% of the time
byu/megamanx503 ingaming

With multiple games, particularly Ubisoft titles, already doing this, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 has decided to do the same as well. The series’ latest entry will require an active internet connection even when playing offline. Why was this done? The reason given was to facilitate the consumer by reducing the game’s file size.

Is Texture Streaming Needed Despite The Absurd Sizes?

Instead of locally storing everything, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will incorporate cloud-streaming of certain textures to reduce the burden on your system. These textures will be continuously streamed, and thus require an internet connection regardless of the game mode you’re playing. The imported textures are necessary for everything in the game, thus an always-online is unavoidable.

Internet is required for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 even in campaign, due to texture streaming tech: https://t.co/E7j8MwY3lG

"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… pic.twitter.com/TeXD3Hot0j

— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 9, 2024

Now if this was any other game, I might have accepted it. But Call of Duty? Please. The recent games have all been absurdly massive. With every title costing over 100 GB of file space, Call of Duty games are infamous for killing consoles’ storage space.

I don’t understand why all these games that look and play exactly the same each become so competitive only when it comes to sizes. Call of Duty of the past was in a class of its own. Now, I don’t know why they’re even selling, but let’s return to the point at hand here.

[COD] The old call of duties is the best
byu/nicholas_cage55 inCallOfDuty

Even Call of Duty Black Ops 6 was thought to be over 300 GB not too long ago. Activision debunked this but refused to share the actual file size still. Who knows, it might well be close to this amount. Anyway, the launch requirements state a size of ~149 GB, so let’s run with this. Still, 149 GB is a pretty solid size, how many textures does this game even have that it still wants to stream some of them?

A Ploy To Force The Always-Online

If a game wants me to spare above 140 GB on an already-restricting console storage, I at least expect the game to be complete. On the other hand, if a game is promising to reduce file size by texture streaming, I want it to “actually” reduce the file size. Activision is giving me the worst of both worlds. An always-online requirement to take away ownership, and still a massive file size.

Comment
byu/StubbsTzombie from discussion
inPS5

As far as I see it, this seems nothing other than a clever ploy to “legitimatize” the always-online requirement. With the industry moving towards making the games as much in their control as possible, always online is an indispensable tool to achieve this. However, backlash and criticism are also a problem. So, the solution is to find a middle way, a logical reason that sounds acceptable.

If you ask me, I would much rather have a massive game than deal with this “internet necessary” nonsense. I want to own my games, and consider it extremely disturbing that companies are trying to take this right away. Steps like this are what force consumers to take drastic measures. 

And Ubisoft needs to get comfortable with not getting my money anymore
byu/Professional_Job1154 inpcmasterrace

All in all, we’ll have to wait and see just how much texture streaming has reduced the game’s size. If it still goes close to 300 GB after one or two updates, then this would all be for nothing, a cover-up to hide the nefarious practice.