There’s a lot to love about Call of Duty Black Ops IIII. It’s fast, the emphasis on multiplayer has made it more polished than ever and Blackout is a pitch-perfect combination of battle royale ideas and Call of Duty’s own legacy. What the Blackout part of the game certainly isn’t right now, is anywhere near playable if you happen to live south of the equator, with many South American and South African players complaining lately of being unable to join any games in a variety of modes.
What started out well enough on various platforms, quickly devolved into a nightmare of dropped games and nightmare pings, with even a recent small update doing very little to alleviate the problem. While local distributors are aware of the problem and are in contact with Activision to sort the issue out, Black Ops IIII developer Treyarch has been surprisingly quiet on the other side of the globe.
Finally saying something, Treyarch hit the Black Ops IIII reddit thread to give an update on the issue:
Finally, a note to our players experiencing low server populations in certain areas of the world, particularly South America and South Africa. Earlier this week, we rolled out an update to ensure Blackout matches always start up in these regions despite server population, and we’re constantly working to improve the online experience. We’ve also been rolling out network updates over the past two weeks to improve server performance around the globe.
If you’re still experiencing problems with getting into a Blackout match in your region, let us know in the comments below. We’re always listening and working behind the scenes to make sure everyone in the Black Ops 4 community can have the best experience possible, regardless of where they live.
It’s nice that this has been fixed, as I can only imagine just how frustrating it is to have bought a multiplayer game that is virtually unplayable online in a specific mode that was the prime chicken dinner many fans were hungry for. Talk about your Blackout blackout, am I right?
Last Updated: November 5, 2018
CrAiGiSh
November 5, 2018 at 08:54
Only started finding games late last night …
Sebastian Niederhumer
November 5, 2018 at 13:16
Hey Yeah, We were playing and searching Blackout games the whole weekend was only finding EU servers untill yesterday 10pm-ish. If the servers are up that would be awesome… but most of the time it seems to be as fruitful as a search for atlantis…
CrAiGiSh
November 5, 2018 at 13:21
I still don’t find any EU games …
So really hope that it gets resolved.
Sebastian Niederhumer
November 5, 2018 at 13:22
If the Sa servers are up and running who cares XD ;p see you tonight Craiggie
CrAiGiSh
November 5, 2018 at 13:29
Hahaha, true.
I honestly don’t mind EU or Local, so long as I get a game … XD
Check you online … 😛
James Foxley
November 6, 2018 at 15:34
Hey Craigish. Which mode do you search to find blackout games in SA? Im never sure if im searching the right option (solo, duo or quad)
CrAiGiSh
November 6, 2018 at 15:42
Currently Solo and Duo are taking a bit of a knock.
Quad games are filling up quickly, so if possible grab a few friends to jam.
Now I cannot confirm this but around 8-9 in the evening seems to be the sweet spot in finding full servers.
Last night I only started playing Blackout at 9 but ended up finding 4 game’s (Quad with friends).
I’m currently jamming on PC.
Hope this helps.
CrAiGiSh
November 6, 2018 at 15:42
Currently Solo and Duo are taking a bit of a knock.
Quad games are filling up quickly, so if possible grab a few friends to jam.
Now I cannot confirm this but around 8-9 in the evening seems to be the sweet spot in finding full servers.
Last night I only started playing Blackout at 9 but ended up finding 4 game’s (Quad with friends).
I’m currently jamming on PC.
Hope this helps.
James Foxley
November 7, 2018 at 12:03
Thanks man!
PestControl
November 5, 2018 at 09:04
GG now it’s even easier to get to the top 10… as there will only be ~20 players in each game 😀 (Kappa)
Allykhat
November 5, 2018 at 09:34
What is weird as hell is when the game launched it was fine. I know/recognize a lot of local names (some are hard to miss with clan tags and names like “JouMaSeP***1337” “P**S” “JaapieSneeubal”) and even now that they fixed it for the most part, I dont see as many locals. Granted I played a lot of Duos this weekend and was getting games pretty quickly, but Solos takes around 15mins a game. While I do think there is some tomfoolery going on in the background, I’m glad I can at least play the game now.
frostZA
November 5, 2018 at 10:18
I gave up on BlackOut (PC), been unable to find games the last 2+ weeks and now just playing team death match. At least BlackOut is working fine when joining UK friends.
Yuri Zager
November 5, 2018 at 13:13
Still not resolved for PC players in South Africa for 3 weeks now and no end in sight…. Blackout searches for a match without luck, before 23 October we would join pretty empty matches but at least it joined. Now nothing….. therefore nothing is
really resolved…..
Jonah Cash
November 5, 2018 at 15:07
Fifa 19 FUT was pretty much also offline the whole weekend. I lost my Championship points and got to play 6 matches… Good online weekend!
Dale Donnolly
November 5, 2018 at 16:29
Can someone invite me to Multiplayer or Blackout plz. #NoFriends #OldSchoolGamer
Ryan Morgan
November 5, 2018 at 17:16
South Africa has zero servers for blackout….. what the hell is going on??? 60 euro game and no server??!!!!!
Please refund
Brad Atkinson
November 5, 2018 at 18:31
The game automatically connects me to Brazil (400ms) and I am in South Africa – if it was at least connected to Europe it would be bearable at 150ms but right now I’m regretting buying the game..
STORM
November 5, 2018 at 19:02
I am from South Africa and I am still unable to find a blackout game for more than 2 weeks now. Me and 2 of my friends are still unable to find/join a game, I have joined on other people that find games quite easily and it is really frustrating seeing them play but me and my friends are unable to play, I can’t find local south African lobbys nor does it redirect me to EU lobbys like other people. Can I please get some help with this issue!
JJ Potgieter
November 6, 2018 at 00:08
Played blackout right before nov 2 update. After update no more lobby’s on XBOX ONE.
I live in South Africa.
I have just now tried getting a game while others are playing blackout and after game completion and then playing again in different lobby’s but still cant find match.
NAT type: OPEN
Port forwarding: DONE
DMZ: DONE
Now what? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa93c38779d5e320a353561195ee259cf8f2b89dbc4b7e9a6d7cbc4d7ffdb1fd.jpg
CYGERAY ZA
November 6, 2018 at 20:17
Same here bro. Wtf
Sebastian Niederhumer
November 6, 2018 at 07:21
Hey Guys, Dont know what to say, Obviously there are more problems than just the standard “cant connect” Like we were playing Blackout on Pc last nite till well past midnight on local servers, There were atleast 3 servers and all of them were full.
Gerrie Bossert
November 6, 2018 at 19:27
hi can anyone test and see if they can still find any games?
Yuri Zager
November 6, 2018 at 20:09
Nothing for me
Bennardt Vorster
December 7, 2018 at 21:31
Solo and Quads have been removed. We are assuming this is Treyarch’s way of forcing everyoen to join 1 mode and fill lobbies. While we were all excited about this (We have massive Bnet South African Group) We expected games to be filling better now since everyone would be searching the same mode, being Duo. BUT the opposite has happened as we are waiting in the search menu for 5-10 min. then when we find a game it takes 15 min to get to 35 people THEN it starts. (Sometimes not even with Local ping) Literally worse ever since this ONLY DUO change. It’s sad cause we love the game, but at this rate more and more South Africans will leave and the game will literally die before Christmas. We were hoping that Christmas will help cause of low specials for people to purchase the game but at this rate it will be dead before then 🙁