PS5 might be playing the wrong version of Call of Duty — what to do

Both the PS5 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War have arrived, giving games the chance to enjoy an updated version of the first-person shooter on the new consoles. But it’s not quite working out that way for some gamers.

A report by Eurogamer claims that some PS5 owners are actually playing through the PS4 version rather than the one that’s been updated for the PS5.

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The issue may stems from users confusion about which version to select — and it’s something that Sony hasn’t been too forthcoming about. When players buy the Cross-Get bundle or Ultimate Edition of Black Ops Cold War, they're getting both the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions at no extra charge. Once you purchase the game, you can choose which parts you want to download via the download menu.

It's easy enough to select the right version of the game and then download the rest of what you need. You have to choose which one you want before you the game will download. However, as Eurogamer points out, if you choose the "Download all" button, you will get both the PS5 and PS4 versions at the same time. Unfortunately, It seems that the PS5 may actually default to loading the PS4 version once you hit the Play button.

To avoid the default version loading, you need to choose the PS5 edition manually by selecting the three dots button and manually changing over to the correct game that you purchased. You'll then load the PS5 version, though’ll you have to pay attention here instead of just clicking through menus in a rush and accepting what's happening..

Unfortunately, that’s not all there is to this problem for those unlucky enough to download the wrong version. Deleting the PS4 version is easy enough from the PS5, but there's an issue currently plaguing some users who cannot download the PS5 version if they have the PS4 version installed. While some PS5 owners have seen this issue cleared up by way of a factory reset, it's hardly a viable long-term solution for everyone.

While the actual cause of the problem isn't due to a bug, it does highlight some potential issues with the PS5. For now, if you're downloading games with multiple versions, especially Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, you should make sure you're downloading the right game to play when the download is complete.

The PS5 came out last week, joined by several high-profile titles that let you test out on the new system now. One game you can’t miss is the pack-in Astro’s Playroom, which is a fun introductory exercise to get players used to utilizing what the PS5 DualSense controller has to offer. The a full-fledged platformer features six hours of content that you get for no additional charge; best of all, it comes pre-installed, so there’s no way to download the wrong one and open yourself up to any frustrating bugs.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over 13 years for publications including Tom's Guide, MTV, Rolling Stone, CNN, Popular Science, Playboy, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, and more. She's also appeared as a panelist at video game conventions like PAX East and PAX West and has coordinated social media for companies like CNET. When she's not writing or gaming, she's looking for the next great visual novel in the vein of Saya no Uta. You can follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake.