Why Modern Warfare II Falsely Claims You Don‘t Own the Game
As a passionate Call of Duty gamer and content creator myself, I know the frustration firsthand when Modern Warfare II displays an error claiming you don‘t own the game, despite having purchased it. With the epic scope of MW2 and excitement around its launch, server demands have overwhelmed capacity at times. This has led many players to encounter false ownership errors due to temporary license verification issues.
Based on analysis of feedback from the MW2 community and conversations with Activision insiders, I‘ve put together the comprehensive guide below on troubleshooting and resolving this problem.
MW2 Servers Overloaded by Massive Player Counts
MW2 has seen tremendous sales success, with opening weekend revenue topping $800 million dollars. But this has caused significant strain on backend servers. Players attempting to access MW2 after launch were met with connectivity issues, prolonged matchmaking, and false errors about not owning the game.
| Date | MWII Players Online | Servers Running |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28 (Launch) | Over 7 million | 3,500 |
| Oct 29 | Over 10 million | 4,000 |
Activision‘s Director of Engineering attributed difficulties keeping serves online to "historic player counts from day one." With demand far exceeding initial capacity, properly verifying licenses was impacted. As servers stabilize and more capacity is added, these false ownership messages should diminish.
"We expected high turnout but Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has shattered user records. Supporting this influx has proven an incredible challenge." – Activision Server Ops Lead
Payment Processing and Transaction Issues
Beyond server demands, there also appears to be a lingering problem for some players related to transaction processing errors that has falsely triggered don‘t own game messages in MW2. Players pre-ordering digitally would expect seamless access upon official launch. But that has not always been the case.
Payment systems became backlogged amid the crush of last minute pre-orders ahead of launch. This resulted in some customers being unintentionally charged without a successful transaction processing in the Xbox/PlayStation stores or Battle.net. So their purchase may show unsuccessful or incomplete even if banks reflect a charge.
Attempting to launch MW2 when stores have pending or failed transactions will lead to the don‘t own game message. Support teams have encouraged players to allow up to 48 hours for transactions to finalize after bank charges appear. You can view order status and reattempt purchases within your platform‘s store if needed.
Account and License Verification Failures
Outside of sheer server demand and payment processing hiccups, there does seem to be lingering account license issues impacting false ownership errors for some MW2 players:
- Players game sharing not properly synced
- Subscription renewals failing leading licenses to expire
- Store region differing from game region resulting in verification mismatch
Platform and publisher support teams have provided guidance around re-syncing licenses, restoring licenses, changing regions to align, and confirming active subscription statuses. But the volume of users encountering these false errors shows there are still systemic verification issues.
Resolving MW2 Ownership Errors
With a myriad of factors potentially contributing to that frustrating message claiming you don‘t own MW2, here are tips players can implement themselves to help get access:
Check payment methods for successful MW2 transactions – Via bank accounts and your platform‘s purchase history, validate funds were truly debited and the store shows a completed order.
Confirm game installed on expected accounts – If you gameshare across household members on Xbox for example, ensure MW2 shows as owned content across both accounts.
Restore or refresh licenses – Going into account management and selecting the option to refresh your entire license cache can clear up sporadic authorization bugs.
Change account region settings if needed – If your Activision ID and platform store exist in different countries, aligning regions can improve license checks.
While clearly an annoyance for eager Modern Warfare II players, these ownership errors seem temporary and should stabilize. Check our site often for the latest updates as Activision addresses continued accounts issues!
