Activision is making one big change to Call of Duty just before the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
As reported by Dexerto, the company has put the work in to fix Call of Duty HQ’s user interface. Following the changes to how this system manages downloads of Call of Duty games, this is a clear sign that Activision really has changed under Microsoft.
The updated UI will be part of the next Call of Duty HQ update this coming October 21, 2024. This is the main update scheduled before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, so players will have sufficient time to get this prepared in advance.
The new Call of Duty HQ UI will now have three main hubs, Home, All Games, and Store. The hubs are also designed to display all the content in one page, so users don’t need to scroll to peruse them.
The Home hub will let you choose between Call of Duty: Warzone or Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. You will then get to choose between three more tiles. The Featured Tile will have the most relevant maps and game modes, the What’s Hot Row shows you the newest content as they come in, and the Last Played Tile lets you just jump back into the last thing you were playing immediately.
The All Games hub, as you can imagine, will show you each Call of Duty title you own, to as far back as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from 2019. You can also manage your different game installs from this hub.
Finally, the Store is a one stop shop to the cosmetics you have bought or can buy in the games you own. Some Call of Duty games also allow you to ‘Carry Over’ some of these purchases between games. So, arranging the store this way does make it easier to manage and plan your purchases with that interoperability in mind.
While this UI reorganization is just the plainly right thing to do, it could be an indication of other things Microsoft has planned for the franchise. We have already seen that Call of Duty HQ works across multiple platforms. It’s possible that Microsoft has prepared their systems to bring Call of Duty HQ, and their Call of Duty games, to more platforms in the future.
After all, Microsoft has literally signed a contract to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms. While no one expects Activision to bring those games to the Switch, fans are looking forward to the franchise’s big return to Nintendo on the Switch 2.
Subsequently, Microsoft has already announced plans to make Xbox games playable on the Xbox Android app. These changes could serve to make Call of Duty HQ and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 easier to play on Android, and that’s whether you’re on your phone, tablet, or an Android smart TV.
Microsoft could even prepare a dedicated Call of Duty HQ app where you can manage your games per platform, from your Android device. And this where it could make sense to add such an app even to Android smartwatches, but we would draw the line at that Galaxy Ring thing.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is releasing on October 25, 2024, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam and Battle.net.
