Call of Duty Modern Warfare is exactly what the franchise needed. Back to basics gameplay, without any magical futuristic gadgets, a Battlefield-like Ground War mode complete with dedicated servers, and a refreshed graphics engine make this the best CoD in years. However, if you're an Xbox One X owner, it comes with a bit of a glaring flaw.
Infinity Ward acknowledged yesterday that Call of Duty Modern Warfare (CoDMW) can cause the Xbox One X to shut down. This seems to be the X's internal thermal safety shut off to prevent overheating. Indeed, when running CoDMW on my Xbox One X, it sounds like a jet engine primed for take-off, then why was I able to play all day yesterday without any issues?
This morning, my external HDD became disconnected and parts of CoDMW reinstalled itself on my internal HDD instead. It seems that the game runs far better from an External HDD, which may simply be a case of reducing the amount of pressure on the hardware internally. If you have an external HDD, it's pretty quick and easy to move it across.
Products used in this guide
- Speedy external storage: Seagate External USB SSD (From $90 at Amazon)
- Most powerful console: Xbox One X (From $400 at Amazon)
- Best CoD in years: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (From $60 at Amazon)
Move an Xbox One game to an external HDD
- Navigate to the game in My Games & Apps.
- Select the game with the Start button (Menu button) to open the context menu.
- Select Manage game & add-ons.
- Select Move all to shift the game and its DLC to another storage device.
- The files will begin moving, and will show up in your Queue in the Games and apps section.
This is by no means a guaranteed fix, and some have reported that their game still crashes even on external. However, it seems to have helped my game run far more smoothly on my end, but I am using an SSD rather than a regular HDD. As noted, Infinity Ward has acknowledged the issue and is gearing up to issue updates to fix it. Until then, be sure to give this a try.
Related: Call of Duty Modern Warfare review
Our top equipment picks
If you don't have an external Xbox HDD, Seagate's 2TB HDD for $60 is a no-nonsense solution, or you can grab something a little more premium, like this $90 Seagate SSD for added speed.
Simple storage.
Average HDD speeds feel old-hat in 2019, but this no-nonsense solution will get the job done.
Premium speed.
The Seagate SSD Game Drive does not disappoint in the speed department, providing a significant boost to load times across the board. You are paying a premium for that Xbox branding, though. If you can stomach the price, you won't be disappointed.
