The PlayStation 5 is officially launched, and while many buyers are checking out launch exclusives like Demon's Souls and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, others are focused on playing the latest Call of Duty title on their brand new PS5. Imagine, however, their frustration upon installing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and finding that it doesn't look much improved compared to the PS4. That's because it's actually very easy for PS5 users to run the PS4 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War instead.
The trick is that, according to reporting from Youtuber Ali-A, when PS5 users download Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War they download both the PS5 and PS4 versions of the game. For whatever reason, the PS4 version of the game is what the console will default to when starting it up. This means that there are potentially many Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players who started up the game on PS5 without realizing they were starting up the PS4 version of the game.
In order to make sure Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players are playing the PS5 version of the game on the PS5, there's a simple check. When hovering over the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War icon in the PS5 menu, there will be both a "Play" button and a "..." button next to it. Clicking on the "..." will show a list of available versions of the game to boot. If there's a "PS5 | Full | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War" option in this menu, then the console has been set to the PS4 version of the game. Clicking on the PS5 listing will switch things over.
This isn't an issue exclusive to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, of course. A variety of PS5 games can also have PS4 versions of the game available to install and play. For example, Spider-Man: Miles Morales also has a PS4 version available on the PS5 that many buyers will download without realizing it. However, Spider-Man: Miles Morales defaults to the PS5 version of the game on the PS5. This is what's reportedly causing a problem for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players.
The good news is that it's very easy for players to switch from the PS4 version of the game to the PS5 version. The bad news is that there will likely be quite a few Call of Duty fans who are going to feel very silly once they realize the mistake.
It deserves to be acknowledged that this may not be a widespread issue. This may only be a problem for those who purchased a certain version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, or there may be an even rarer issue that isn't readily apparent. Ultimately, there's no harm in PS5 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players checking to make sure they're on the right version of the game.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.