Our national nightmare is over: Call of Duty's MP5 has been nerfed

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In response to frustration and memes, the MP5 gets a targeted change.

black ops cold war mp5 best loadouts
(Image credit: Activision)

That was quick. Less than a week after release, Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War developer Treyarch has nerfed the MP5. The approach the studio has taken is two-pronged: opening recoil and effective damage range have been adjusted, as announced below:

This will make the MP5 less of a threat at longer ranges, a capability that certainly went against the gun's spirit. This appears to be a targeted balance tweak, and not part of a larger set of weapons adjustments, which to me indicates that Treyarch considered this change to be urgent. Some in the community certainly thought so—as Morgan reported yesterday, the MP5 was outclassing sniper rifles and ARs in some situations, making it a frequent topic among the community with threads like "Nerf the MP5 already 2.0" and "the mp5 is single-handedly destroying the game for me" springing up after release, among memes like this, which show an MP5 loaded into every equipment and Perk slot.

(Image credit: Treyarch)

Versatility was perhaps the biggest gripe players had with the MP5: It shrugged off much of the game's focus on careful customization and specialization and appeared to work well in almost every situation. We wrote a Call of Duty MP5 guide in response to the gun's power and popularity, something we'll have to update on the other side of this patch to see where the gun now falls among CoD's library of guns.

ABOVE: A pre-patch moment that shows how effective the MP5 was in the right hands.

And to MP5 mains mourning this rebalance, let me share the words of Alan Johnson: "The scythe is remorseless. I hope the scythe's remorseless swing can bring some comfort to you all."

Evan Lahti
Evan Lahti
Strategic Director

Evan's a hardcore FPS enthusiast who joined PC Gamer way back in 2008. After an era spent publishing reviews, news, and cover features, he now oversees editorial operations for PC Gamer worldwide, including setting policy, training, and editing stories written by the wider team. His most-played FPSes are Hunt: Showdown, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic, Rainbow Six Siege, and Counter-Strike. His first multiplayer FPS was Quake 2, played on serial LAN in his uncle's basement, the ideal conditions for instilling a lifelong fondness for fragging.