Warzone 2 players are being frozen out unless they buy Modern Warfare 2

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"Purchase Modern Warfare 2 to have access to everything"

Warzone 2
(Image credit: Activision)

Unhappy Warzone 2.0 players are reporting that one of the Warzone 2 error codes in the free-to-play battle royale is locking them out of the game because they don't own Modern Warfare 2.

That's according to players on the shooter's Reddit page, who are reporting that after a handful of Warzone 2 games - and sometimes even when they do indeed own the premium shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, apparently - the game locks them out by displaying a pop up that instructs players that they need to "purchase Modern Warfare 2 to have access to everything".

"Since yesterday, I played probably around six Warzone 2.0 matches with no problem," u/Unf0cused wrote on Reddit (thanks, NME).

"Now when I try to play it, when I click 'Battle Royale Solos' I get the 'Purchase Modern Warfare II to have access to everything' window (I've also tried the other BR variants with the same result). 

"I've restarted the game and my PC, but that didn't help. Anyone else getting this now and/or knows of a fix?"

Warzone 2 is completely free-to-play and, in theory at least, a different game, so players shouldn't require Modern Warfare 2 to access Warzone 2. Hundreds have now upvoted the post, however, with many commenting that they too are experiencing the same issue. 

"I'm soo mad. This SUCKS," said one commenter, whilst another added: "Do not even think about giving them your money at this point." 

At the time of writing, the issue has not been publicly acknowledged by developers Infinity Ward and Raven Software. 

Warzone 2 officially launched earlier this week but its Steam page is already inundated with negative reviews and currently boasts a 'Mostly Negative' rating from over 8,000+ reviews - less than 3,000 of those who have left a review had something positive to say. 

As Hope summarized for us earlier this week, some of the top negative reviews include complaints about the game's nickname system, its complicated menus, lagging, crashes, and numerous bugs. 

"Warzone 2 makes a good first impression," we said in GameRadar+'s Warzone 2 review-in-progress. "While it shares some similarities with its predecessor, Infinity Ward has delivered a more tactical battle royale that smartly subverts expectations."

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.