Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone are set to undergo a major shift with the arrival of Season 3, introducing changes that have sparked concern among PC players—particularly around matchmaking dynamics.
As part of its Season 3 update, Activision has officially confirmed a structural overhaul to Multiplayer matchmaking. The most notable change is the separation of Multiplayer Ranked Play and Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play into distinct settings, while also introducing a new Multiplayer-only setting for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games playlists.
Once Season 3 launches on April 4, each of the three modes—Multiplayer Ranked Play, Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked—will support the following crossplay options:
- On: Allows matchmaking across all platforms within selected playlists.
- On (Consoles Only): Restricts matchmaking exclusively to console players in selected playlists.
- Off: Limits matchmaking solely to your current platform in selected playlists.
Activision issued a clear warning regarding the “On (Consoles Only)” option, stating it may result in slower queue times. Even more notably, the company explicitly stated that selecting Off will negatively impact matchmaking speed.
The introduction of console-only crossplay in regular Multiplayer has caused unease within the PC community. Many fear this could lead to longer wait times when trying to find matches, especially if console players opt out of playing with PC users altogether.
This decision comes amid ongoing concerns about cheating in Call of Duty titles. While cheating exists across all platforms, it’s widely perceived as more prevalent on PC—partly due to the accessibility of tools and methods that are harder to deploy on consoles. As a result, some console players disable crossplay entirely to avoid potential encounters with cheaters.
“As a PC player… hate this change but I get it,” said Reddit user exjr_. “I hope it doesn’t affect queue times long-term so I’m not forced to buy the game on PS5 just for a better experience.”
Others were less forgiving:
“This is awful for PC players because this just killed PC,” tweeted @GKeepnclassy. “Terrible idea because now PC players that ARE NOT cheating are being penalized. This is bullshit.”
“My lobbies barely fill already on PC due to sbmm,” added @CBBMack. “This will definitely make it worse. Time to plug in the console I guess.”
Many in the PC community believe Activision should focus more on strengthening anti-cheat measures rather than isolating PC players.
“Maybe they should fix their anti-cheat instead of isolating PC players,” commented Reddit user MailConsistent1344.
In response to the cheating epidemic, Activision has reportedly invested millions into combating cheat developers, sellers, and users. Recently, several high-profile cheat providers—including Phantom Overlay—have been shut down. Additionally, four other cheat services were taken offline ahead of the highly anticipated return of Verdansk to Warzone.
Despite these efforts, the fight against cheating remains challenging. Activision has promised enhanced anti-cheat technology with the launch of Season 3, which could potentially ease tensions—especially as the reintroduction of Verdansk is expected to draw a surge of returning players.
However, many analysts believe the average console player may not even be aware of these new crossplay settings. Most casual players likely don’t read patch notes or tweak game settings extensively—they jump into a few matches, enjoy themselves, then log off. Therefore, the majority may continue to play with default settings, meaning crossplay remains enabled without any active filtering.
This sentiment was echoed by popular Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce:
“I see a lot of pushback from PC players worried about longer queue times or difficulty finding games in less-played modes. But to be clear, PC players will still matchmake with the largest portion of the playerbase since most won’t even notice this setting exists. They’ll either stick to defaults or, even if aware, many will leave it on. If anything, it's those who actively choose console-only crossplay who will limit their own matchmaking pool—but that’s now a choice they can make.”
With Season 3 fast approaching, all eyes will be on how these changes affect matchmaking performance and whether Activision’s updated anti-cheat systems can restore confidence in fair play. Only time will tell if this new approach strikes the right balance between competitive integrity and player accessibility across platforms.
