‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ update fixes party-related crashes

If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has crashed when you’ve tried to play with a party of friends, you’ll want to download the game’s latest update as soon as possible. In a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, developer Infinity Ward said early Friday morning it was “aware of some players experiencing crashes when partied up.” 

Later that same day, the studio said it would deploy a “mitigation” on Saturday morning. As of 12:22PM ET, that update is now live and rolling out to Modern Warfare II players. “Players in parties should see significant improvement,” Infinity Ward said.

The fix comes as the studio attempts to address a handful of launch issues with Modern Warfare II. One bug, for instance, is preventing players from accessing the game’s menu while in a match. 

Another issue, since addressed by Infinity Ward, created an audio continuity problem on PlayStation 4. The studio was also forced to disable Modern Warfare II’s ping system after people found it was possible to exploit it to track a single enemy player for the duration of a game. 

When the next Call of Duty arrives on October 28th, fans will need to connect a phone number to their Battle.net account to play the game. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, newly created Overwatch 2 accounts, and newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts require a phone number,” says a recently updated support page spotted by PC Gamer.

News of the requirement comes following a week of controversy around SMS Protect, the phone-linking system in use by Overwatch 2 and soon Modern Warfare II. After a bumpy launch that saw a DDoS attack prevent many from playing Overwatch 2 on its release day, Blizzard announced it would scale back the requirement. 

Where the studio previously said all players would need to link a phone number to their Battle.net account, now that requisite only falls on new Overwatch players. In part, the system has been controversial because “certain pre-paid” numbers could not be used in conjunction with SMS Protect. Before Friday, players with service from mobile providers like Cricket Wireless found they could not play the game.

At the moment, it’s unclear if all Warzone 2.0 players will need a mobile phone number to play that game once it arrives on November 16th. Since 2020, Infinity Ward has required all free-to-play Warzone users on PC to go through a two-factor authentication process. Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for clarification and comment.