PlayStation 5 players looking forward to experiencing the highly anticipated single-player campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III have encountered an unusual problem. The game is locking them out and demanding the insertion of the Modern Warfare II disc. This bizarre issue has left players frustrated and confused.
For years, there have been tongue-in-cheek jokes about how new Call of Duty games are simply repackaged versions of the same game with a few additional guns. While this is not entirely true, there are instances where certain installments feel very similar to their predecessors due to the reuse of technology and assets. In the case of Modern Warfare III on PS5, this similarity is taken to a whole new level, with trophies on PS5 being labeled as DLC for Modern Warfare II.
Reported and confirmed by IGN on November 2, players have taken to the internet to express their frustrations with being unable to access the new game’s campaign even after pre-ordering. An error message appears, instructing players to insert the PS4 version of Modern Warfare II. This situation is perplexing because these players purchased Modern Warfare III.
It seems that some players have found workarounds on Reddit, but these methods do not resolve the issue for everyone. Activision, the publisher of Call of Duty, has acknowledged the problem and stated that they are investigating it. They later tweeted that an update had been pushed out, which should fix the issue for players upon restarting their console. Interestingly, Activision made no mention of the specific error message in their tweets. This peculiar error adds weight to previous reports from 2022 that claimed Modern Warfare III was originally planned as an expansion for Modern Warfare II.
This speculation was further ignited on November 1 when players noticed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on PS5 lacked a platinum trophy. This raised questions about whether the new game was intended to be treated as downloadable content for its predecessor. A similar observation was made on the Steam version of the game, where Modern Warfare III’s achievements were labeled as DLC for Modern Warfare II.
It appears that the MW2 disc error and the DLC trophy situation could be remnants of when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was initially planned as a paid expansion for Modern Warfare II. While plans may have changed over time, as reported by Bloomberg in February, traces of those original expansion plans seem to have lingered in the PS5 version of Modern Warfare III.
As players eagerly await a resolution to this issue, it serves as a reminder that even in a highly anticipated game like Modern Warfare III, unexpected complications can arise. Despite this setback, many players remain hopeful that Activision will address the problem swiftly, allowing them to finally immerse themselves in the long-awaited single-player campaign.
