Unreal Engine 5: The Biggest Mistake in Mobile Gaming History?
Here my thoughts. Call of Duty Warzone Mobile was supposed to be revolutionary with next-gen graphics and massive battles. However, what players actually got was lag, crashes, overheating phones, and crazy storage sizes. Many players are even saying it runs worse than Call of Duty: Mobile, and some devices can’t even launch the game. So what went wrong?
Why Unreal Engine 5 is a Key Problem Unreal Engine 5 is an incredibly powerful tool used in high-end games like Fortnite and The Matrix Awakens. However, it was designed for powerful PCs and next-gen consoles, not mobile devices. Features like Nanite (for ultra-detailed graphics) and Lumen (for realistic lighting) look amazing but are too much for mobile chips to handle. This causes overheating, FPS drops, stutters, lag, and battery drain—making it nearly impossible to have long gaming sessions.
Warzone Mobile aimed to bring console-quality graphics to mobile, but it seems like that may have backfired. After warzone switched to Unreal Engine 5 for the mobile version, it caused major issues like bugs, lag, and game-breaking glitches. Players started noticing things like texture pop-ins, buildings loading too late, frame drops—even on high-end devices—and touchscreen lag that made aiming feel unresponsive.
Optimization Warzone Mobile’s file size is massive, and it’s expected to grow even more—possibly exceeding 10 GB, which is way more than other mobile shooters like PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty: Mobile. The reason? Unreal Engine 5 uses high-resolution assets, and mobile compression struggles to keep up. As a result, mid-range phones can barely run the game, and older phones (like the iPhone 8 or Galaxy A series) are basically out of the question. Many players simply can’t play the game.
Can Warzone Mobile Be Fixed? Activision could fix these issues, but it’s not going to be easy. Potential solutions include:
Better optimization and patches to make the game run smoother. Lower graphics settings that actually work well on mobile. Fixing touchscreen input lag to match Call of Duty: Mobile’s precision. The big question is: Will Activision actually listen and take action?
Who’s to blame? Some people blame Unreal Engine 5 for ruining the game, but is the engine really the problem? Or was it just a rushed, unoptimized release?