With the launch of Season 3 this week, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone are set to undergo significant changes that have sparked concern among the PC gaming community, particularly regarding potential impacts on matchmaking queue times.

Activision has released the Season 3 patch notes, confirming a major update to regular Multiplayer. The update separates the settings for Multiplayer Ranked Play and Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and introduces a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches. Starting April 4, players will have three settings to choose from:

• Multiplayer Ranked Play
• Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play
• Multiplayer Unranked

Each of these settings will offer the following crossplay options:

• On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in the selected playlists.
• On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in selected playlists.
• Off: Restricts matchmaking to your current gaming platform only in selected playlists.

Activision has warned that selecting On (Consoles Only) might lead to longer matchmaking queue times, while choosing Off will definitely impact queue times negatively.

The introduction of console-only crossplay in regular Multiplayer has raised alarms within the Call of Duty PC community. They fear that console players opting out of matchmaking with PC players could result in increased wait times. This concern stems from the game's history with cheating, which is more prevalent on PC. Activision has acknowledged that cheating is more common on PC, and some console players disable crossplay to avoid potential cheaters.

PC players have expressed frustration over the change. Redditor exjr_ lamented, "As a PC player... hate this change but I get it. I hope it doesn't affect queue times for the game in the long-run so I'm not forced to buy the game on PS5 to have a good experience." Similarly, X / Twitter user @GKeepnclassy stated, "This is awful for PC players because this just killed PC. Terrible idea because now PC players that ARE NOT cheating are being penalized. This is bullshit." Another user, @CBBMack, noted, "My lobbies barely fill already to begin with on PC due to sbmm. This will without a doubt make it worse. Time to plug in the console I guess."

Some in the PC community have suggested that Activision should focus on improving its anti-cheat measures rather than isolating PC players. Redditor MailConsistent1344 commented, "Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players."

Activision has been actively combating cheating in Call of Duty, spending millions and achieving several high-profile successes. Recently, Phantom Overlay, a prominent cheat provider, announced its closure, and four other cheat providers were shut down ahead of the return of Verdansk to Warzone. Despite these efforts, the battle against cheating remains challenging. Activision has promised enhanced anti-cheat technology with the launch of Season 3, which could potentially alleviate some of the PC community's concerns.

However, it's worth noting that the majority of Call of Duty's console player base, being casual gamers, might not even be aware of these new settings. Most players simply jump into unranked Multiplayer for a quick session and may never adjust their crossplay settings. This point was highlighted by Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce, who addressed PC player concerns on social media, stating, "I see a lot of pushback with this change from PC players concerned that they won't be able to find games in lesser played modes or that matchmaking will take too long. To be clear, PC players will still be matchmaking with the largest pool of the playerbase since that majority of players won't even notice this setting exists so they'll stick to the default or even if they are aware of it, many will choose to leave it on. If anything, it's the players that decide to turn console-only crossplay on that will be limiting their matchmaking pool but that's a choice that's now in their hands for the first time in Pubs and it's a tradeoff that many of us will be happy to make."

As Season 3 approaches for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, it remains to be seen whether these changes will significantly affect the gaming experience, particularly as Activision continues its efforts to combat cheating.