Warzone’s Lunar New Year bundle crashes games: Complete breakdown, developer response, and player impact analysis
Game-Crashing Bundle Forces Emergency Disable
Call of Duty: Warzone developers at Raven Software have taken the drastic step of removing a premium store bundle from circulation after players reported consistent game crashes when using its content. The Year of the Tiger Tracer Pack, a Lunar New Year celebration item, has been rendered unusable while the studio investigates a serious stability bug.
Raven Software has confirmed they are working on a resolution for the Year of the Tiger bundle, which was causing Warzone to crash completely for players attempting to use its cosmetic items. The bundle has been temporarily pulled from the in-game store as a precautionary measure.
Released to coincide with Lunar New Year festivities, the Year of the Tiger Tracer Pack was available in both Warzone and Vanguard. This premium cosmetic bundle featured distinctive red and gold tracer rounds, an exclusive STG-44 weapon blueprint, a themed watch, two decorative weapon charms, and two calling cards for player profiles.
Despite the appealing seasonal theme, the bundle contained a critical technical flaw. Players who equipped any items from the pack risked experiencing complete game shutdowns, disrupting matches and potentially affecting competitive rankings. This represents a significant quality control failure for a paid cosmetic item.
Developer Response and Communication Timeline
On February 1, 2022—coinciding with Lunar New Year—Raven Software acknowledged the problem via their official Twitter account. The development team confirmed awareness of crashes linked specifically to the Tracer Pack: Year of the Tiger content and implemented an immediate disable of the entire bundle as a stopgap solution.
❗️We’re aware of an issue causing Players to crash while using contents from Tracer Pack: Year of the Tiger.
This Store Bundle has been disabled in #Warzone until further notice.https://t.co/JzeiSQGEW0
— Raven Software (@RavenSoftware) February 1, 2022
The studio’s tweet explicitly identified “an issue causing players to crash while using contents from Tracer Pack: Year of the Tiger” as the core problem. This public acknowledgment helped validate player reports and set expectations for resolution timing.
Raven Software clarified that the bundle would remain disabled “until further notice” while their engineering team diagnoses the root cause. Additional details posted to their public Trello development board confirmed the issue is being actively investigated across all supported platforms—PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Player Impact and Financial Considerations
Priced at 1,000 Call of Duty Points (approximately $10 USD), the Year of the Tiger bundle represented a significant purchase for players who didn’t save points from previous battle passes or promotions. Those who bought the pack cannot currently use any of its content, though they retain ownership for when a fix is deployed.
The timing proved particularly unfortunate, as the bundle launched alongside Lunar New Year celebrations on February 1. Players hoping to showcase seasonal spirit through their cosmetic loadouts instead encountered game-breaking instability. The incident underscores the challenges live service games face when time-sensitive content contains critical bugs.
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Practical Guidance for Affected Players
When Raven Software eventually deploys a fix, they will likely update both their Trello board and Twitter account. Players should monitor these channels rather than attempting to reuse the bundle prematurely, as doing so could trigger further crashes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Do not re-purchase the bundle thinking it was a one-time glitch—the disabled status applies to all copies.
- Avoid attempting to equip items from the bundle through loadout menus, as this may still trigger instability.
- Don’t expect immediate refunds—most live service games resolve these issues via fixes rather than reimbursements.
Optimization Tips While Waiting:
- Clear your console or PC cache if you experienced crashes, as corrupted temporary files might persist.
- Report your specific crash details through official Activision support channels to aid debugging.
- Consider using alternative tracer packs or cosmetics until stability is confirmed.
Broader Implications for Live Service Games
This incident highlights systemic risks in the live service model where cosmetic content—often developed by separate teams—can impact core game stability. The Year of the Tiger situation demonstrates how even non-gameplay elements like tracer effects and weapon blueprints can contain code that crashes entire sessions.
Industry Context: Similar issues have occurred in other major titles like Fortnite and Apex Legends, where cosmetic items occasionally contained memory leaks or rendering bugs. The rapid disable-and-fix approach has become standard industry practice for managing these emergencies.
Quality Assurance Challenges: Testing every cosmetic combination across multiple platforms represents a monumental task for developers. This incident may prompt more rigorous stress testing for future seasonal bundles, particularly those with visual effects like tracer rounds.
Player Trust Considerations: While most players understand occasional bugs, paid content that breaks core functionality tests community patience. Transparent communication—as demonstrated by Raven’s quick response—helps maintain goodwill during these situations.
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