The insatiable thirst for SSD space in Call of Duty continues. According to the official system requirements announced by Activision today, in order to install Modern Warfare 3, you must first install another program: the Call of Duty HQ.

If you've been playing Modern Warfare 2 or Warzone for the past few months, you're probably already using Call of Duty HQ. This is basically just a rebranded Warzone and MW2 main menu that allows you to launch other CoD games; Modern Warfare 3 will be the first new CoD game to require HQ to be installed, leaving a large footprint on your SSD. The HQ installation is mandatory, and the "storage capacity" section of the system requirements grid is the most complex we have seen to date, as it allows for selective installation of different parts of Call of Duty.

Here's how it breaks down: if Warzone and HQ are already installed, Modern Warfare 3 adds another 78GB, for a total of 149GB. With campaign, co-op, and Warzone all removed, the minimum configuration for MW3 is 79GB (45GB for CoD HQ and 34GB for multiplayer).

In this day and age of 100GB games, this number is not outlandish, but it does raise the question of what the heck CoD HQ is for; we've known for a long time that MW2's weapons and loadouts would carry over to MW3, but Activision has been trying to keep MW3 a fully " premium" game; Battle.net's launcher claims so: Modern Warfare 3 falls under the banner of all "Call of Duty" content on the launcher and is installed as an option. In other words, this is extended content.

This is troubling news for CoD players on PC. This is troubling news for CoD players on PC, as it suggests that the complex process of playing the MW3 beta a few weeks ago may carry over into the full game. To access the beta, you must first launch the CoD HQ app, where you select MW3 among other CoD titles, and then wait 10-15 seconds for the correct game to launch... which makes me even more curious about the relationship between MW3 and CoD HQ. MW3 is What is in the dozens of gigabytes of required space that is not installed? Are MW2 guns being stored there? And why is the current app size so different from the expected size of CoD HQ on MW3 release day (45GB)?

I thought that fixing my current installation of CoD and removing everything but the HQ itself would reveal something, but it only made that goal less clear.

Before removing everything but the "base game," my total CoD install was 131 GB. After removing only the base game, Call of Duty still consumed 91 GB. I don't know what I'm using it for; when I launch Call of Duty, I can't play Warzone, MW2 multiplayer, or Co-op. All I can do is navigate the Battle Pass and of course shop at the premium store. If I can't do anything, why am I even allowed to keep the useless skeleton that is CoD installed?

It was only when Warzone's file size was getting out of hand that Activision began forcing players to change their installations. I am now convinced that the CoD install screen is a big fat lie; unchecking Warzone only freed up 14GB; the 91GB on Battle.net should not be Warzone data.

Data management is a real mess. New system requirements suggest that CoD HQ will be smaller once MW3 is released (maybe they are actually moving all of Warzone's data to Warzone's box.) On November 10, Modern Warfare 3 will apparently be a standalone app, and if you technically don't need CoD HQ, but you have to launch MW3 every time, I don't think PC version players will like it.

Call of Duty doesn't have to be a launcher; Battle.net is already a launcher.