Activision just announced that they will shut down Warzone forever soon. Warzone Caldera, that is. Here is everything you need to know.
Warzone 1 was a huge success and attracted a ton of new players to the Battle Royale genre for the first time. Some of that success was definitely due to COVID and people sitting at home playing games all day, but it also introduced some cool, innovative features that no BR had before. The biggest "selling point" however was that Warzone 1 was completely free-to-play – the first Call of Duty to ever be free for everyone with a console or PC to play (apart from CoD: Mobile).
With the release of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 in 2022, Warzone 1 was replaced, but still playable. If you had Modern Warfare 2019 you could still download Warzone 1, which was now called Warzone Caldera, and play a slimmed down version of it. Now, Activision have announced bad news for everyone still playing the old Warzone.
- If you want to really shine in Warzone, you need a great controller. Maybe give the Xbox Elite Series 2 a try.
Warzone 1 Will Be Shut Down
In a recent blog entry, publisher Activision announced that Warzone 1 or Warzone Caldera will be shut down completely on September 21, 2023. Why not just keep the servers online, you might ask. Well, the devs said they have to focus on future Call of Duty content, including the current Warzone 2.
While there was no new content for Warzone Caldera in the past year anyway, keeping the servers running still costs money and resources that will now be put to better use in Warzone 2 and probably CoD 2023.
Since players of Warzone 1 probably put at least some money into microtransactions to buy operator skins or weapon blueprints, the big question is, if you will lose all of that. The answer is pretty simple: No! Your purchased items will not carry over to Warzone 2, but they will still be available in Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard. To still be able to play Warzone Caldera, players had to purchase MW2019 anyway, so you can at least use your skins in MW2019 multiplayer.
Regarding purchased content in Warzone Caldera – from Modern Warfare® (2019), Black Ops Cold War, or Vanguard – that will continue to be accessible in those specific games.
- Maybe a new headset will help you get more wins?
And that's it, the end of an era! Warzone 1 is finally gone for good and completely replaced by Warzone 2. Let's hope the coming seasons will add tons of great content and that Modern Warfare 3 will actually be good again, otherwise the future of CoD isn't looking great.