24 hours after being added, Warzone’s new MG82 is already being nerfed

Call of Duty: Warzone’s popular MG 82 weapon was flagged for a stats reduction on Friday, just 24 hours after it was added to the battle royale game.

The light machine gun was added as part of Warzone’s Season 4 update on Thursday, and very quickly fans highlighted it as an incredibly powerful option, with many influencers calling the LMG overpowered.

On Friday, developer Raven Software acknowledged the complaints and said it would rebalance the MG 82 “soon”.

“The MG 82 (BOCW) made one too many trips to the Pack-a-Punch machine before deploying to Verdansk, it tweeted. “Element 115 is off limits in #Warzone so we will be making an adjustment to this Weapon soon.”

The MG 82 is just the latest in a number of instances where Raven has added new weapons to Warzone and then quickly had to alter them based on criticism over their effectiveness.

Earlier this year, Raven’s creative director, Amos Hodge explained in a VGC interview how he decides which Warzone weapons need adjusting and when.

“That’s a combination of things, but mostly it’s data-driven, he said. “We actually have data so we know how many players are using each weapon and we will look at what players are putting in their loadout kits, collect that data and then we have a range where if above a certain percentage of players are using something then it’s out of control.”

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He added: “With so many guns – we’re nearing close to 100 – there’s always going to be one or two that are the best and part of the meta, but we want to make sure that we’re constantly changing that so the meta doesn’t get stale and boring. If the meta was still the M4 from when we launched, it would be boring.

“So we know there’s always going to be one or two guns that are in the meta – and it’s usually a long-range gun and a short-range gun – and we want a meta: we want people to know and learn new experiences, but we don’t want it to set too long. Our goal is to change it every season launch. We might not always hit that, because it’s not like a science, it’s an art.”