The greatest games of the previous year all come from surprising backgrounds. Take a look at the global phenomenon that is Among Us, an indie game that came out years earlier with little previous success. Or, in the world of AAA gaming, we have the undisputed king of battle royale shooters. We’re referring to Call of Duty: Warzone, the game that took the usual trappings of battle royale shooters and cranked it up to eleven.
Why is Warzone so successful? It all amounts to the careful, precise game improvements developers Activision and Raven Software made. They knew that to compete with the likes of PUBG, Fortnite and Apex Legends, they would require a superior experience. So, they expertly took familiar Call of Duty gunplay, and coupled it with unprecedented map detail and visual fidelity. How many other competitive battle royale games offer raytracing support, thorough map design and tight gunplay at this level of intricacy?
Well, the point is almost moot, owing to a slew of bad errors and bugs riddling this otherwise fantastic game. Call of Duty: Warzone is rife with several errors, including some that straight up make the game unplayable. And unfortunately, this new error that players on PS4 and Xbox report is just as bad.
The Warzone Gunnerside Error on PS4 and Xbox, faced by several players, cripples online connectivity
Recently, the online space, including forums and social media, received a barrage of complaints from Warzone players. Apparently, they began facing increasing reports of a certain online error on the console community. The Warzone gunnerside error seems to restrict multiplayer connectivity for the game, and render online-only game unplayable. Since the game requires a logged in connection to the Activision servers, it is a total mess right now.
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The Warzone gunnerside error pops up seemingly randomly, and sometimes at start up. Players who also play other AAA titles online on the very same network claim this issue arises suddenly. In some cases, players report their entire console being forced to go offline, severing connections to PSN or Xbox Live. This odd, worrying issue is, occasionally, found to occur on the PC side as well.
In typical Call of Duty fashion, this sinister bug is given a military-related name. Don’t let it fool you, though. It is highly persistent, meaning a simple retry of Warzone won’t guarantee a permanent fix. Luckily, the developers at the Activision team seem like they’re working on a fix:
Hey there. Apologies for the wait. If you are currently experiencing this issue or any other issue in game, please send a DM with your Activision ID, platform and gamertag for further assistance. Thanks! ^LP https://t.co/c9WoAfwenP
— Activision Support (@ATVIAssist) January 2, 2021
This customer support is welcome, and their acknowledgment of the issue indicates an eventual possible hotfix, patch or update. But in the meantime, we’ve devised several reliable fixes to try on your own. Let’s get started!
1) Restart your PC or console, and then launch Warzone again
Like all computers, your PC comprises a system of interconnected processes all working harmoniously with each other. When a process starts up abnormally, or encounters a bug, its data set can become corrupted. An affected process can affect the others around it, leading to a snowball of errors. This manifests as a systematic error, reducing game performance and causing unexpected glitches.
The solution? Restart your computer, so as to kill off any active processes. This makes them start up again completely clean, and eliminates corrupted data in your RAM. Once this is done, try running your game again.
If you need to reset your PS4 or Xbox, just make sure to power down all the way. This will bypass the default Sleep Mode. Also ensure the system reboots back in, and that your console is logged online into your gamer accounts.
2) Restart your router, and configure advanced network options
There is still always the chance that the Warzone gunnerside error stems from a network issue on your part. To troubleshoot for this, restart your router. To do this, simply power it off for 30 seconds, then back on. This will serve to clear up any traffic bottlenecks on your network. We also recommend switching from a wireless connection to a wired one, using an Ethernet cable. This helps reduce latency and packet loss, and improves your connectivity.
Then, it becomes essential to make sure your connectivity is properly optimized. Contact your internet service provider (ISP) and request login credentials to your router’s portal. From here, you can tweak certain advanced settings, like enabling Quality of Service (QoS) and changing NAT type. The former is useful for prioritizing your bandwidth over less immediate connections on your network. And the latter helps to strengthen connectivity by slightly loosening up security protocols.
3) Use the Battle.net Launcher to verify the integrity of installed files
It is also possible the game suffers from broken/missing files. If you suspect this, you can always use the Battle.net’s main feature. Like the Steam Launcher, Battle.net also contains the ability for players to verify the integrity of installed games. This works by smartly checking the file’s orientation against the records kept on online servers.
To do this, head to the Warzone tab. Look under the additional settings tab, and click on Scan And Repair. This will only take a few moments, but will also detect and fix and perceived errors.
4) Make sure you have up-to-date game drivers
Like the cars around you, with humans guiding and navigating them (ignore self-driving vehicles for now…), your PC needs instructions too. The GPU, in particular, needs frequent software updates to stay as efficient as possible when running games. These software updates, also known as drivers, prove invaluable to making your game run smoothly. In fact, some game driver updates even add useful improvements like Nvidia’s DLSS and Reflex.
For Nvidia drivers, check the GeForce Experience app. For AMD, click here.
5) On PS4 or PS5, you can rebuild game databases
The Sony consoles’ best tool for gamers is the presence of Safe Mode. This partition of the console is a hidden advanced channel for tech-savvy to fix bugs and errors. It is only accessible by holding the power down button on the console, until it emits a distinct note. This indicates the acceptance into Safe Mode.
From here, head to the game in question and select the Rebuild Database option. This has the benefits of repairing installations for errors and bugs. It also reorganizes your storage more effectively, making load times much better.
For more on gaming, guides and news, stay tuned!
