'Call of Duty: Ghosts' 6GB RAM Fix: 'COD: Ghosts' Artificial PC Restriction Forces Players To Seek Unofficial Patch Workaround

While the launch of “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” or “COD: Ghosts” on Tuesday was relatively uneventful for owners of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 3, some Windows PC users were faced with huge obstacles that prevented the game from running entirely.

After these unlucky users downloaded and installed “Call of Duty: Ghosts” from various digital distribution platforms, including Valve Software’s Steam, they were rudely greeted with a “Fatal Error” message:

“Your system memory (RAM) does not meet the minimum specification for running Call of Duty: Ghosts.”

While minimum hardware requirements are nothing new for PC gamers, “Call of Duty: Ghosts” owners held a particular ire towards Infinity Ward, the Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) subsidiary behind “COD: Ghosts,” after being greeted with the message, which also prevented the game from launching at all.

According to the “Call of Duty: Ghosts” minimum system requirement specifications, 6GB of random access memory, or RAM, is required to run “COD: Ghosts."

Frustrated owners of “Call of Duty: Ghosts” took to several gaming forums and social news sites, including Guru3D, NeoGAF and Reddit, to express their anger at the restriction that prevented owners of the PC version for “COD: Ghosts” from running it entirely.

After peeking around the Windows task manager, Guru3D user JonasBeckman noted that “Call of Duty: Ghosts” only appeared to be using between 1.1 and 1.8GB of RAM at any given time:

“The game has some form of lock or whatever that it displays a prompt about how the system needs 6 GB of RAM and if you don't have that you are below specifications. RAM usage so far (Task manager, unsure about VRAM.) is usually around 1.1 - 1.8 GB. (Maybe it continues to grow the more you play, without unloading as maps change and such? Which isn't ideal.)”

This comment piqued player interest and led many to question whether the 6GB minimum RAM requirement was an artificial limit imposed by Infinity Ward.

Game modders quickly developed a “RAM fix” workaround for “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” which removes the minimum RAM requirement. A quick search shows several results for the “COD: Ghosts” RAM fix workaround.

Note: International Business Times is not responsible for any damage the unofficial workaround may cause. Install at your own risk.

As for why “COD: Ghosts” requires a minimum 6GB of RAM, some players have speculated that it is just a result of a poorly optimized port from console versions of “Call of Duty: Ghosts.”

One video posted on YouTube speculated that it was an attempt by Infinity Ward to prevent cheat programs from accessing the game’s data stored in RAM. However, that was quickly debunked by several commenters.

While it’s becoming more common for computers to come standard with 8GB of RAM, some PC owners have still opted to stick to 4GB of RAM, since most games don’t necessarily utilize all that much RAM in the first place, making artificial requirements, such as this 6GB limit, somewhat unnecessary.

This 6GB RAM limit issue with “Call of Duty: Ghosts” is just one more problem noticed by players of “COD: Ghosts,” which was received with mostly average reviews and ratings after its release on Tuesday.

Some players of “Call of Duty: Ghosts” have questioned how much effort Infinity Ward put into making “COD: Ghosts.”

One video even demonstrated that a cut scene from “Call of Duty: Ghosts” was basically copy and pasted from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”

Let us know what your experience with “Call of Duty: Ghosts” has been like on PC, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 in the comments below.