Popular Warzone streamer Tyler ‘TeeP’ Polchow had a chat with Call of Duty live operations creative lead Josh Bridge recently about Warzone. It’s a fantastic listen that sheds light on what is going on behind the scenes, and how Warzone and the pandemic shutdowns right at launch turned the game into a juggernaut but also led to the problems the team continues to fix today.
When asked about the possibility of a broader map pool similar to what we see in other Battle Royales like PUBG, Bridge offered an answer that anyone following Warzone understands. It all comes down to hard drive space.
“We want that. We all want that. There’s a technical problem. The install and reinstall sizes are f**king crazy,” Bridge said. He explains that every time there’s been a huge download size on updates, “we lose players.”
Bridge does say that a broader map pool is a goal for the team. They have been putting a lot more effort into climbing over those technical hurdles for the future.
I would recommend giving the whole interview a watch. Bridge talks about how Warzone and all the integration that followed between multiple games wasn’t something they initially planned for.
“When we launched Warzone, we were excited about it, but we didn’t anticipate it,” says Bridge. Because of the pandemic shutdowns, gaming specifically saw massive growth as folks looked for different entertainment or had lots more free time on their hands. The Warzone team didn’t think the current iteration of Warzone would go much longer than a year. “It turned into holy s**t. This is gangbusters. What do we do now? What do we do next year,” says Bridge.
That then turned into integrating Cold War and Vanguard content which caused a bunch of issues with technical performance.
Again, this is a fantastic and candid conversation about the issues Warzone has faced and continues to face. And we get a good glimpse into what the Warzone team is thinking with the most recent updates as well.