Highlights
- Warzone Season 4 Reloaded update caused major performance drops on PC, with players experiencing severe FPS drops and lag issues.
- Developers released a patch to address the PC performance issues, focusing on optimization for smoother gameplay and higher framerates.
- Some players are still skeptical about the patch's effectiveness, as they continue to experience framerate drops and other technical problems. There are concerns that game balance took priority over fixing optimization issues.
Call of Duty: Warzone developers have released a patch that is supposed to fix the PC performance issues related to low framerates stemming from the seemingly unoptimized Warzone Season 4 Reloaded update, released on July 12. While many first-person shooter enthusiasts were very excited about the numerous new features introduced to the game, Call of Duty: Warzone's Reloaded update proved to be a nightmare for a great deal of PC gamers.
As soon as Season 4 arrived, many Warzone fans who preferred to experience the intense battle-royale action on their PCs started to notice serious performance drops in-game. Some gamers claimed that their FPS dropped by more than half, while others said that the update was so badly optimized that even lowering the graphics settings did not make any noticeable framerate improvements. Even those who had high-end gaming rigs encountered many technical issues. Judging by the overwhelming critical feedback on the update, Warzone’s developers were under pressure to quickly come up with a fix for the game’s technical problems or risk alienating a sizable part of the game’s community.
On July 21, Infinity Ward released the much-requested patch meant to tackle all the performance issues that PC players had been experiencing since the previous Call of Duty: Warzone update. The game’s developers claimed that the patch focused primarily on optimization in order to ensure a smoother gameplay experience and to improve the overall performance for PC users. With the patch, players can now expect increased stability and higher framerates.
That being said, numerous social media users are skeptical about the effects of the newly released patch. While some Call of Duty: Warzone players seem to now have a smoother in-game experience, others are complaining of still experiencing severe fps drops, lag issues, and even latency problems which date back to Warzone's Season 3. Some gamers are also upset that the fix was not able to be implemented before the World Series of Warzone Stage 2 North American Final, which took place earlier this week on July 20.
For some, it might seem like the Warzone developers focused more on prioritizing game balance rather than fixing the dreaded optimization issues that plagued the battle royale experience. While the developer’s focus on optimization is commendable, most players’ opinions about the latest Warzone season give the impression that gamers would prefer a game free of technological flaws. It remains to be seen whether Warzone's newest patch will be successful in lessening the game’s flaws or whether additional interventions will be required.
Call of Duty: Warzone is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
