Warzone 2 Bug Is Locking Out Players That Don't Own Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 is a free-to-play title, players do not need to purchase Modern Warfare 2 to play it. However, Warzone players are reporting a bug which locks them out of the game unless they buy Modern Warfare 2. Many players have taken to Reddit to complain about the bug which shows players a message that reads “Purchase Modern Warfare 2 to have access to everything” even after they have played a number of matches. 

Players are testing out hit or miss solutions for the Warzone 2 bug

One Reddit user said they were, “playing DMZ just fine, then decided to play a Battle Royale and it requires MW2 purchase to play.” Other similar threads have been popping up on the subreddit in the past few days where the game is requiring players to buy Modern Warfare 2 to continue playing. 

While there is no official bug fix or workaround, some players reported that restarting the game fixed this issue for them. Another player reported that verifying the file integrity on Steam or clicking the “check updates” button on Battle.net helped them get rid of the error. 

If you don’t own Modern Warfare 2, you can avoid this error by scrolling down to the bottom of the main menu and clicking on the battle royale or DMZ card. Also make sure to invite friends only from the Battle Royale (or DMZ) menu. 

There is currently no entry on the Warzone 2.0 Trello board about this error. The developer is currently fixing a number of other errors in the game including those related to the players skipping the downed phase and issues with the Most Wanted contract. The game has gotten mostly negative reviews on Steam with several players reporting issues with servers, a complicated user interface, buggy gameplay, and inconsistent matchmaking.