“So long Verdansk, our squad’s dropping in Caldera! Wait, what? I can see you’re talking in game, but I can’t hear you. Is my gaming headset busted?” – If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation while playing Call of Duty: Warzone, you’re not alone. Despite launching over a year and a half ago, players are still encountering problems getting voice chat to work with their cross-play comrades.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to fix this particular bug, so you won’t be forced to adopt hand and arm signals in order to communicate with your teammates. Strangely, this fix was first identified by YouTuber Evil Nickel before Warzone came out, but this makes some sense given that the battle royale began as an additional mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Before we jump into the fix, it’s worth noting that you should first make sure that your Windows Sound Control Panel is properly configured and pointing to the right devices.
Here’s how to fix the Call of Duty: Warzone cross-play voice chat bug on PC:
- Press the ‘Windows Key’ + ‘E’ simultaneously on your keyboard
- Navigate to your ‘Documents’ folder (This is typically located in: C:\Users\XXX\Documents)
- Open the ‘Call of Duty Modern Warfare’ folder
- Open the ‘players’ folder
- Delete everything in the folder except the ‘adv_options’ file
- Right-click the ‘adv_options’ file, hover over ‘Open with’, and select ‘Notepad’ from the expanded menu
- Replace the ‘1’ next to ‘ConfigCloudStorageEnabled’ to ‘0’
- Save and close the file
- Open Warzone, customise your game settings to your preferences, and then close the game
- Open the ‘adv_options’ file again
- Revert the ‘0’ next to ‘ConfigCloudStorageEnabled’ back to ‘1’
- Launch the game
Be warned, this may erase your progression in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign. However, your Warzone unlocks will remain unaffected.
Activision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit filed in July by the state of California (since expanded for QA and customer service contractors) alleging years of discrimination and harassment. Since then, CEO Bobby Kotick has called the company’s initial response “tone deaf”, employees have staged a walkout, Blizzard president J Allen Brack has left, and the ABK Workers Alliance has demanded change at the company. The lawsuit is ongoing; follow the latest developments here.
In September, an agency of the US federal government opened an investigation into Activision Blizzard’s response to sexual misconduct and discrimination complaints from its employees, as part of which Kotick has reportedly been subpoenaed. The company is also facing a separate unfair labour practice suit alleging “worker intimidation and union busting” filed by a workers’ union, also in September. In another, separate development, Activision Blizzard reached an agreement with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “to settle claims and to further strengthen policies and programs to prevent harassment and discrimination”. In a subsequent letter to employees, the company has announced an end to forced arbitration, a $250 million initiative to improve diversity, and a major pay cut for Kotick.
A new report published this November now alleges Bobby Kotick knew about and suppressed reports of sexual misconduct. Kotick has responded with an official statement saying the Wall Street Journal’s article “paints an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership.” In reply, Activision Blizzard’s board of directors declared it “remains confident” in Kotick’s leadership.