The launch of Warzone Mobile serves as a cautionary tale for developers, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right engine and thoroughly testing games across a wide range of devices before release. The highly anticipated global launch of Warzone Mobile has been plagued with performance issues across devices, including high-end smartphones.
One of the main reasons for these optimization problems is the game engine chosen by the developers.
Why Warzone Mobile Suffered the Worst Launch in History of Mobile Shooters
Warzone Mobile operates on the powerful IW 9.0 engine, renowned for its use in top-tier PC gaming experiences. However, the stark contrast in hardware capabilities between mobile devices and PCs presents a significant challenge.
Unlike PCs, which boast dedicated graphics cards and sophisticated cooling systems, mobile phones typically offer less raw power and lack such specialized components. This hardware divergence contributes to a suboptimal gaming experience on mobile devices, despite their proven capability to handle visually demanding titles like Genshin Impact or New State.
Using a PC engine for a mobile game poses significant challenges in terms of optimization and performance. Mobile games typically use engines like Unity or Unreal 4, which are better suited for the hardware constraints of smartphones and tablets.
Why Activision Chose a PC Engine for a Mobile Game?
The developers likely chose the IW 9 engine to enable cross-progression between PC and mobile versions of Call of Duty Warzone. However, this decision has come at the cost of poor optimization, especially on Android devices.
Performance Rankings Across Android and iOS
Performance rankings show that even high-end Android smartphones like the Red Magic 9 Pro are experiencing issues like lag, screen tearing, and graphical glitches. The list of affected devices is extensive, suggesting that the optimization problems are widespread across the Android ecosystem.
On the iOS side, while the list of affected devices is shorter, users with older iPhones and even some with the latest models like the iPhone 14 have reported performance issues.
User Reception and Ratings for Warzone Mobile
The optimization problems have resulted in extremely low user ratings for Warzone Mobile across various regions. Countries like India, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, and the UK have all given the game average ratings below 3 out of 5 stars.
While the developers have acknowledged the issues and promised to work on improvements, the fundamental problem lies in the game engine itself.
Engines are the backbone of any game, handling physics, graphics, sound, and overall optimization. Changing or optimizing it is a complex and time-consuming process, making it challenging for developers to quickly address performance-related issues.
