Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

You might want to wait a bit to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Steam

Add as a preferred source on Google
A player runs in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer.
Activision

It’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch day, which means potentially millions of players are hopping into the new single-player campaign, the updated multiplayer mode, and Zombies. While posts online about the performance of the game seem to be minimal, there have been reported issues on PC, specifically via Steam.

It’s been a common story lately about players being mad at third-party launchers on Steam, and that remains the case for Black Ops 6. Call of Duty’s is called Call of Duty HQ (COD HQ), and it’s a hub for players to manage their game installs, whether they want to only download certain game modes or launch a specific game. It seems as if players can only switch between modes through the launcher and have to go through multiple menus to boot the game up. In the worst cases, they can’t launch the game at all.

Recommended Videos

“The COD HQ is the worst thing to ever happen to cod. I don’t want to navigate 10 menus to get to the single thing I want to see,” said one Redditor, who also mentioned that it’s “constantly just bugging out.” Multiple people in this thread say the the HQ crashes at launch.

Vault Edition owners on Steam are also having an issue where they can’t equip the Woods Operate Pack. The team is currently working on a fix.

Still, Black Ops 6 is currently sitting on Steam at a “Mostly Positive” rating. It’s likely you won’t run into any problems, but if you wanted to immediately hop in and play, you might have to wait a bit longer.

Beyond those issues, Black Ops 6 is still shaping up to be another uber-successful Call of Duty release. Analysts told GamesIndustry.biz that while the game coming to Xbox Game Pass will reduce overall sales, it could bring 2.5 million to 4 million new subscribers to the service.

Carli Velocci
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
I’m rocking the original Switch in 2026. It just works because everything else got complicated
It's weaker, older, and far less impressive on paper, but Nintendo’s first Switch still understands the assignment
Person holding Nintendo Switch OLED.

My original Switch should feel retired by now. It has the thick bezels, the aging screen, the tired battery life, and the unmistakable aura of a gadget that has survived too many backpacks. Next to Switch 2 and the current wave of handheld PCs, Nintendo’s first hybrid console looks hopelessly outgunned.

And yet, I keep picking it up.

Read more
Xbox Game Pass could get more pocket-friendly with Discord tie-up
Discord Nitro is getting even sweeter
Xbox Game Pass Banner Featured

Xbox Game Pass may be getting a more budget-friendly route in, and Discord could be the vehicle Microsoft uses to make it happen. The company already teased a new Discord and Xbox Game Pass partnership earlier this week.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma said the two companies were teaming up again “as we continue to make Game Pass more flexible for our players,” while also hinting that some users might start seeing code appear before a formal announcement.

Read more
Microsoft Gaming is dead, long live Xbox
A shift back to a gamer-first identity.
Xbox Logo Featured

Microsoft just hit reset on its gaming identity, and in a way, it feels like going back to basics. Because “Microsoft Gaming” is out, and Xbox is officially back at the center of everything.

Why is Microsoft ditching “Microsoft Gaming” for Xbox again?

Read more