Physical copies of Call of Duty are nearly empty

Modern Warfare 2 physical copies only contain 70 megabytes of data, instead pushing customers to download the 150 gigabytes via the internet.

Physical copies of the new Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2, only hold approximately 70mb of data — essentially serving as a redirect to a download page, where the full 150-gigabyte game can be downloaded.

As reported by Eurogamer, the physical discs, which are called “dummy discs”, are only used to redirect buyers to the digital download option for their console — a 150 gigabyte download not including Warzone 2.

150 gigabytes is a massive amount of data to download in one sitting — and forcing a download off of physical copies defeats the purpose of buying a physical copy in the first place. Customers with low internet speeds or data caps tend to purchase physical copies to avoid having to eat up a ton of data.

The 150 gigabytes do not include Warzone 2, which will undoubtedly add several more gigabytes to the total install size. Picture: Activision

Furthermore, game preservationists, people that keep copies of games for historical purposes, have criticised the move, as local copies of the game are difficult to keep once the servers shut down in the future.

The push towards digital purchases is part of a monetisation scheme to get players to purchase early access bonuses. It follows Activision Blizzard’s controversial decision to remove lootboxes in Overwatch 2 and replace it with a Battle Pass system. The change in monetisation and content access seems aimed to push sales of skins and optional content, with the latest skin for heroes costing nearly $40 AUD — in Overwatch 1, you had an opportunity to get the skin from a lootbox instead, and didn’t need to necessarily pay for it.

News from Activision Blizzard has not been kind recently — a custom game mode for Overwatch 2 features a disturbing “rape mode”, causing many to call for people to boycott the game. A request to dismiss the lawsuits pending against Activision Blizzard has been denied by an appeals court.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.