The Original Call Of Duty: Warzone Is Shutting Down In September

The original version of Call of Duty: Warzone will cease to exist come September 21, Activision has announced.

In a blog post, Activision cited the development team’s “focus on future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone free-to-play experience,” as the reason behind the upcoming shutdown.

Call of Duty: Warzone (renamed to Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera following the release of Warzone 2.0 in November of last year) originally released alongside 2019’s Modern Warfare, and shared a battle pass, weapons, and cosmetics. Even though the first version Warzone is shutting down, its original map, Verdansk, hasn’t been playable for quite some time. Currently, the Pacific-based map Caldera is the only map playable in the original Warzone, hence the game’s current name.

None of the purchasable content usable in Warzone Caldera carries over to Warzone 2.0. Activision states that players interested in using the content they purchased for Warzone Caldera will still be able to do so in the multiplayer modes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, 2020’s Black Ops Cold War, and 2021’s Vanguard.

The announcement comes not long after Activision rebranded Warzone 2.0 as simply Warzone for the game’s fourth season, a change that went live on June 14. Activision is encouraging fans who played the original Warzone to jump ship.

“We all have had incredible Warzone experiences across the Call of Duty franchise since its first launch, including those in Warzone Caldera,” Activision’s blog post reads. “For those players who haven’t jumped over to the current Warzone activities, expect a vast amount of gameplay choices across three Battle Royale maps (including Season 04’s new map Vondel), as well as Ranked Play, the DMZ Beta featuring five different Extraction Zones, BlackCell offerings, and more.”

Changes between the original Warzone and its new version include new maps, changes to how loadouts work, the presence of AI enemies, the ability to swim, and more.