On November 10th, 2023 Activision released the newest COD title, MW III. Along with the new title also came the new COD HQ "launcher" which removed the ability for owners of MW II to directly launch the game modes they purchased. Instead, they now have to install the COD HQ Launcher, which contains the base MW III game, as well as sections to launch older game modes such as MW II multiplayer or the very popular PvPvE DMZ mode. If you purchased MW II, there is currently no way to directly launch any of the game modes you own. Everything must go through the COD HQ Launcher, which is actually a full fledged game. 

The biggest issues with this newly designed HQ Launcher are as follows: 

• In order to launch MW II content, users often have to install updates to MW III/HQ Launcher, which again, many do not own and can not/do not want to play. MW II owners DO NOT WANT TO UPDATE OR DOWLOAD FILES for a game they DO NOT OWN. 
  
  
• Switching between game modes within MW II takes between 2-3 minutes. This is unacceptable and a total waste of time for those users who only own MW II. 
  
  
• The HQ Launcher/MW III takes up a large amount of hard drive space, again, for a game that many MW II owners have not purchased, and do not want to play.

To fix this and bring back basic usability for MW II users, Activision needs to implement a way to directly access all of the MW II game modes that they purchased from a single screen. Additionally, they should remove the unwanted and unusable MW III game files from any user who has not purchased the title. 

Major gaming publishing companies have already covered the new HQ launcher and voiced their negative opinions, such as the following quotes: 

"Now, if you want to play Modern Warfare II or Warzone, you have to load into Modern Warfare III / the Call Of Duty HQ app, select the game you’d like to play, and sit around twiddling your thumbs while it restarts again before taking you back into a totally different hub ... " - Forbes

"Activision has claimed its Call of Duty HQ launcher provides easier file management and seamless switching between games, despite criticism from players ... In practice, however, it's confusing plenty of players and has resulted in huge file sizes - as previously reported, the install size of the complete package is over 200GB on some platforms." - Eurogamer

"One of the main complaints in the community is that the recent changes to the franchise’s launcher, the CoD HQ, are pushing players to buy the newest game using unappealing tactics ... Another related controversy surrounding Modern Warfare 3’s release and the CoD HQ is that players were apparently forced to download the game despite not having purchased it. Given the massive download size of the latest Call of Duty games, having to install MW3 temporarily prevented many gamers from playing the other Call of Duty games on the CoD HQ. Not to mention, the install size for individual Call of Duty games is quite large, so having to install a second Call of Duty game isn’t something that most gamers have space for without deleting other games to make room." - GamerRant

"Call of Duty HQ is the new platform from which Call of Duty games such as the imminent Modern Warfare 3 are launched, and replaces the Modern Warfare 2 app. It is not possible to jump straight into Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, or battle royale Warzone via their own dedicated apps. Rather, players must log into Call of Duty HQ, find their game of choice via a Netflix-style launcher, then load the app ... However, after a whopping 100GB+ download released overnight, Call of Duty HQ is anything but seamless. Players have expressed frustration at multiple logins just to get to the game they want to play, confusion around navigation the various menus, and the dreaded ‘update to restart’ message that appears frequently. The time it takes to play on PC seems especially annoying." - IGN