Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Crossplay Can Only Be Turned Off at a System Level on Xbox, Drawing Criticism from Those Who Want to Avoid PC Players

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Image: Activision

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II officially released today, but some Xbox gamers have found a reason to complain after realizing that crossplay cannot be easily disabled between the Xbox and PC versions of the game through the options menu. This has generated a bit of controversy, as Xbox players, even with aim assist enabled, could easily be destroyed by PC gamers, most of whom are playing on more effective hardware such as mouse and keyboard. There are also worries of the PC version being more susceptible to cheating.

A workaround for Xbox players does exist in the form of turning off crossplay on a system-wide level, but doing so effectively turns off crossplay in all games. The PlayStation version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, in contrast, offers an in-game option to turn off crossplay, allowing them to compete only against PS4 and PS5 players. Previous Call of Duty titles on Xbox had crossplay toggles that could be accessed through the options menu, some have noted.

Xbox users can turn off crossplay by doing the following:

  • Enter the Settings menu on Xbox
  • Go to the General tab, choose “Online safety & family”
  • Choose “Privacy & online safety,” then “Xbox Live privacy”
  • Choose “View details & customize,” then “Communication & multiplayer”
  • Choose “Block” on the tab that reads “You can play with people outside Xbox Live”

Activision has celebrated today’s launch with a blog post that can confirm more Call of Duty will be on the way next month:

You could be diving into Campaign, Multiplayer, or Special Ops right now. And we recommend you do, because we are less than a month away from the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Season 01 of Modern Warfare II on November 16. There is plenty more content to come: Expect more intel on Season 01 during the first full week of November.

The full game you can play now is the result of an incredible global effort across multiple studios, as mentioned in the lead-up to launch: Whether it was revealing the game’s artwork with a 90,000-square-foot wrap in the port of Long Beach, dropping a ton of intel at Call of Duty: Next, or playing the game’s record-setting Beta alongside the community, we hope that you’re ready to enjoy the new era of Call of Duty.

This game was made possible by a global, cross-studio development team who are proud to share their hard work with the world.

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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