Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War version 1.25 and version 1.26 have been silently made available for download. However, the last title update, i.e. one with new things, patch notes, etcetera, was version 1.24, The Haunting update, from October 19th, 2021. In this article, we’ll explain what’s going on with these mystery updates as well as talk about what these updates might mean for the future of Black Ops Cold War.
After The Haunting update launched, bringing Cold War to version 1.24, versions 1.25 and 1.26 have been silently pushed out to gamers. Both updates are a handful of gigabytes in size, and we currently have official word from Treyarch about what these updates actually do.
Season 6 for Call of Duty included The Haunting event which, according to Treyarch, would ‘reload’ Season 6 just a few weeks after launch, implying that there would not be a formal Season 6 Reloaded update like there were for other seasons. Last year’s Halloween event in Call of Duty did the same thing, replacing the Reloaded update with the Halloween event.
Related: Call of Duty's Anti-Cheat Ricochet in Warzone and Vanguard Explained
While there aren’t official plans for a Reloaded update, leakers have been predicting a plethora of new maps to be added to Cold War, and Season 6 has only brought with it two 6v6 maps and a single Gunfight map. The Haunting event did bring a new version of Nuketown ‘84, Nuketown ‘84 Halloween. While ‘new’ this version of Nuketown is simply a modified version of the Nuketown ‘84 Holiday.
Plus, while we got many map remasters in Season 5 of Cold War, there haven’t been any yet released in Season 6, which could be a good indicator that there are more maps to come, because most Call of Duty seasons tend to include at least a single remaster. Though, this isn’t a hard and fast rule.
Data mining has not yet revealed what’s in these mystery updates, but Season 6 Reloaded is definitely in the cards with these updates, which have yet to go live. But this isn’t a total confirmation of a Season 6 Reloaded update. If this does happen, though, it will likely work a little bit differently than other Reloaded updates.
Related: Call of Duty's Season 6 Haunting Event & Reception Explained
The launch of Season 6 brought with it a new zombies experience, Forsaken, as well as a whole slew of new zombies additions. Plus, The Haunting update also brought with it major changes to zombies, adding pumpkin heads as random drops from zombies that offer powerful rewards. This has made the Dark Aether camo grind far easier than it ever has been in Cold War zombies.
However, the major new zombies content additions to Season 6 were positioned by Treyarch as the final conclusion to the Cold War zombies experience. This likely comes in accordance with Treyarch’s handling of the Vanguard zombies component that is set to be a prequel to Cold War’s zombies.
So, it’s a lot more likely if there’s a Season 6 Reloaded update it will focus entirely on multiplayer. It’s also likely that there won’t be major new weapons added, as none have been listed in the Season 6 roadmap beforehand, but another melee weapon or perhaps a secondary could come as a surprise. What would likely be the big new additions in a Season 6 Reloaded would be new maps, alongside new bundles to buy, cosmetics, unlockables, that kind of thing.
Related: Does Call of Duty: Vanguard Have SBMM, or Skill-Based Matchmaking?
It’s also important to understand the Season 6 of Call of Duty runs until December, a month after the launch of Vanguard, while The Haunting event in Cold War lasts until November 2nd, 2021. So, there’s going to be roughly a month-long period of Season 6 with no new content to speak of, aside from weekly playlist updates.
This could well be the perfect time to reload Season 6 for those gamers who prefer a more modern shooter as opposed to the WW2 aesthetic of Vanguard. This is especially true when you consider the release of major futuristic shooter games in November 2021 like Battlefield 2042 or Halo Infinite.
In 2021, there’s a ton of competition in the FPS market, and this competition is coming in the form of modern and futuristic shooters, not WW2 games. Plus, in the lead-up to Vanguard, there’s comparatively little hype for the game. Online you’ll see many gamers excited to hop into Battlefield or Halo or Back 4 Blood or Far Cry 6 but you won’t see many eagerly anticipating Vanguard.
Related: Best Ways to Level Guns and Grind Camos in Cold War Season 6
Not that the reception to Vanguard’s alpha or beta was particularly negative but that gamers in general weren’t blown away by what they experienced. The game, in general, reads to a lot of players as WW2 reskin of Modern Warfare 2019 with a lot in common design-wise with that game.
Not only are these facts of life, but Black Ops Cold War performed a lot better than most people expect. While the game did make headlines for launching with very little content, since then the game has expanded exponentially. Even still, Cold War was the best-selling game of 2021, and it remains one of the best-selling games of 2021.
Cold War, in general, has performed significantly better than Activision expected it to, and considering how much content in the game has expanded, gamers are more happy with Cold War than ever before, especially after the nerfs came down for the overpowered Season 5 weapons.
Related: Boosting and Reverse Boosting in Call of Duty Explained
Considering how Vanguard won’t directly compete with other big shooters of the day, which are much more modern or even futuristic, for gamers that want the Call of Duty experience in a more modern setting, Cold War will be the choice through 2021. Given that, supporting Cold War with a reloaded Season 6 as well as a year two of content could make a lot of sense.
Traditionally, Call of Duty games are either quickly or slowly abandoned after their year in the spotlight winds down, but that has been changing. Modern Warfare 2019 received updates during year two of its life cycle, and these updates did very occasionally introduce new content like maps or weapons, but the consistency of the updates was far, far less than it was during the game’s first year on the market.
However, both Modern Warfare and Cold War are modern shooters, so there was a good chance that the playerbase of one would be moving to the other when it launched. The same can’t necessarily be said for Vanguard, being a WW2 game, so Cold War may indeed see more support for a Call of Duty than ever before.
Related: How to Turn Off SBMM, or Skill-Based Matchmaking, in Call Duty and Get Easy Lobbies Explained
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!
Gaming