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How to fix the Modern Warfare 3 disc required error

We've found a quick and easy fix for this annoying early access bug.

A pop up error message that blocks players from accessing Modern Warfare 3.
Image credit: Eurogamer, Activision

If you've pre-ordered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 you should get early access to the campaign. However, many on Playstation 5 have been running into a garbled 'Disc Required' error that stops you from even getting to the opening cutscene. According to the message the game seems to be trying to verify a cross-play version of Modern Warfare II.

With a bit of trial and error we've found a quick solution that should hopefully work for you.

Exit the game. Hover over the Call of Duty icon and press the 'Options' button (the start button to the right of the touchpad).

Navigate to 'Manage Game Content'. Head down to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: Warzone 2 and use the bin icon to the right to uninstall the module.

After fully closing the game and relaunching, this solved the problem for us. Naturally, this will affect your ability to play Warzone, but it's worth it if you want to get stuck into the MW3 campaign and earn all of the unlocks ahead of launch.

Hopefully Activision will release a quick patch to fix the issue. If this solution doesn't work then you can try other typical brute-force workarounds like restarting the game, restarting the console, or hard resetting the console (turn it off, unplug the power for 30 seconds or so, and power up again).

You could even try reinstalling the game completely. At 100 plus gigabytes a full redownload and reinstall is a last resort. Fortunately the Warzone 2 file we deleted is nowhere near as big. It's easy to download it again if the fix doesn't work.

We're looking forward to getting stuck into MW3's intense special forces action, and the Open Combat Missions sound especially promising. We'll be looking for the best unlocks and loadouts when the full game launches on 10th November. In the meantime we have some quick guides on how to preload Modern Warfare 3 and an overview of the multitude of pre-order editions and their prices on respective platforms.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to dive back into the campaign to become reacquainted with Captain Price's remarkable moustache.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

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About the Author
Tom Senior avatar

Tom Senior

Managing Editor

Tom is Eurogamer's Managing Editor. After 30 years of playing everything he can, he reckons he’s probably going to love video games forever.

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