Various Warzone Pacific launch issues are being investigated including crashes and visual glitches

Raven Software has said it’s investigating a variety of Call of Duty Warzone issues following today’s Pacific update, including crashing and stability problems on all platforms.

Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Season 1 launched on Wednesday, introducing the biggest shake-up for the battle royale game since its March 2020 release.

It has seen Warzone’s launch map Verdansk replaced with a new Pacific island one called Caldera, with Vanguard owners receiving exclusive access for 24 hours before it’s made available to all Warzone players on December 9.

UPDATE 09/12/21: Raven has provided an updated on PlayStation performance problems, which are still under investigation.

“Disabling texture streaming may help alleviate performance issues on PlayStation platforms,” it said on Thursday. “We appreciate your patience while we continue our investigation.”

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: But as with many major online game updates, Warzone Pacific Season 1 has launched with its fair share of issues, which developer Raven is working to fix (you can see the problems it’s tracking on Trello).

One of the more common issues players are encountering on all platforms is artifacting. “Some players are experiencing visual inconsistencies with Weapon and/or Operator models,” Raven said.

Warzone has suffered from similar visual issues previously, which can result in weapons taking on jagged appearances that vary in size and can obstruct the player’s vision by covering large sections of the screen.

“We are investigating various performance related issues on the PlayStation platform,” Raven also said on Wednesday, without going into specifics.

And on consoles, some players are having to reinstall the Warzone Pacific update multiple times. Raven has offered a potential workaround for users stuck in an update loop.

Wednesday’s Warzone Pacific launch coincides with a third consecutive day of walkouts staged by Raven QA staff to protest recently announced job cuts.

On Friday, Activision is said to have informed 12 QA workers that their contracts would be terminated on January 28.

The layoffs will reduce Raven’s QA team of 40 staff, which mainly works on Warzone, by just over 30%, according to those organising the walkouts.

It’s claimed the affected staff were let go in “good standing”, meaning they hadn’t underperformed or committed any sackable offenses, and that the dismissals were announced at a time when Warzone is earning $5.2 million daily.

Prior to the layoffs, walkout organisers claimed staff were told on multiple occasions by Raven leadership that there were positive departmental changes on the way, something which was allegedly used to explain an absence of promotions and raises originally expected by March 2021.

“In response to the events of Friday, the Raven QA team and other members of Raven’s staff will be walking out with a singular demand: Every member of the QA team, including those terminated on Friday, must be offered full time positions,” those leading the walkout said last week.

“Those participating in this demonstration do so with the continued success of the studio at the forefront of their mind. The Raven QA department is essential to the day-to-day functioning of the studio as a whole.

“Terminating the contracts of high performing testers in a time of consistent work and profit puts the health of the studio at risk.”