PS5 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players might be playing the PS4 version by mistake

Some PS5 owners might be playing the PS4 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War by mistake, robbing them of the game’s next-gen enhancements.

But how has this happened? Well, as reported by Eurogamer, if you buy the Cross-Gen bundle or the Ultimate Edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, you get the PS5 and PS4 versions of the game as part of the deal. 

The problem is, upon purchasing either of these versions from the PlayStation Store, players are given the choice to download specific parts of the game, such as the campaign, multiplayer and zombies. Select 'download all', however, and you’ll download both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. The PS5 will then default to launching the PS4 version on Sony’s next-gen console for some users.

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It means that some players have perhaps been unknowingly playing the PlayStation 4 version of the game since its release day on November 13, which of course, isn't ideal.

Correct deployment

Thankfully, Activision Support is aware of the issue and has provided some steps to help ensure PS5 players that they are indeed playing the next-gen version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

PS5 owners need to highlight the game tile of the PS5’s home screen and scroll down and highlight ‘Play’. From there, select the three dots and open the menu. You should now see an option that says ‘PS5 | Full | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’. Select it, and you’re good to go.

To make sure you’re playing the next-gen version of #BlackOpsColdWar on PS5:1. Highlight the game tile on the Dashboard2. Scroll down and highlight “Play”3. Select the 3 dots and open the menu 4. Select “PS5 | Full | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War”5. Launch and enjoy!November 14, 2020

We've previously lamented Call of Duty's complicated buying process, but this issue seems to be solely down to the PS5 not prioritizing the next-gen version of the game when both are installed. 

The issue isn't found on the Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S as Microsoft's console installs the next-gen version only using Smart Delivery.

Nevertheless, hopefully it means that those who were accidentally playing the PS4 version by mistake will now get a nice next-gen surprise. 

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