On September 21, 2023, the original Call of Duty: Warzone, now called Warzone: Caldera, will come to an end. This marks the conclusion of one of the most successful stories in gaming, which was also a misunderstanding from the very beginning. MyMMO editor Maik says farewell.
It is early 2020. Call of Duty had regained its former glory with Modern Warfare and CoD: Mobile, having rectified the disaster surrounding Black Ops 4.
However, there was another arrow in the quiver that was supposed to hit a bullseye. A free Battle Royale for anyone with a PC or console. Free2Play “Call of Duty” at the highest level.
However, it turned out that they were not prepared for the success. Corona forced many people into lockdown, gaming suddenly became a popular hobby, and Warzone was able to seize the moment to become one of the biggest games in the world.
Now it comes to an end, and with it, a piece of video game history.
FAQ about the Warzone End
When does Warzone 1 end? It ends on September 21, 2023. There is currently no exact time.
Why is Warzone 1 ending? They want to focus on the new Warzone, which incidentally got a new map in Season 4.
What happens to purchased items? Cosmetics will not be transferred to the new Warzone but will remain in the corresponding CoD games. Mara from Season 1 of CoD MW 2019 will also remain in CoD MW 2019.
Will this affect Warzone 2? No. The end of Warzone: Caldera does not change anything in the current Warzone game.
You can read the complete information about the shutdown in the English blog (via callofduty.com).
Here you can find the trailer with which everything began in March 2020:
Warzone was never meant to run this long
Why a last resort? The Battle Royale Warzone was planned as a free addition to CoD MW 2019. The developers once explained that Warzone was actually supposed to end together with the 2019 CoD.
Originally, only eight months of operation were planned. However, it did so well that Warzone could not be allowed to end.
In March 2021, a year and a new Call of Duty later, the franchise reached its peak. Activision could report 150 million “Monthly Active Users” in the quarterly report, with Warzone being an important component. However, the downfall of Warzone was already sealed by then.
They developed Warzone “on the side” – the well-oiled CoD machine left little room for an extra game that ran alongside the premium releases. They encountered “significant development challenges” and learned about “the limits of the technology used”.
Warzone was a patchwork, and players felt it a bit more every day.
To that came the cheaters, as CoD was also unprepared for that on PC and consoles: Free2Play games attract armies of cheaters. The anti-cheat system RICOCHET only came into play with CoD: Vanguard – a year and a half after the release. Before that, Warzone was a cheater’s paradise.
Players fled in droves.
By the end of January 2022, the system partly collapsed. At that time, Warzone was already playing on the map Caldera, which was supposed to bring the big change. However, the Battle Royale was simply too broken, its image had suffered, and the good Verdansk days had long faded.
“We messed it up,” the developers admitted in an interview. With CoD MW2, the successor Warzone 2 was released in 2022, which is now simply called Call of Duty: Warzone.
Nevertheless, Warzone 1 was the best gaming experience of my life.
A few words of farewell
I have tears in my eyes while writing this. Warzone was more than just a game. It filled my entire day.
In 2020, everyone was at home, everyone was gaming. We went in every evening and played until we fell asleep.
For me, Warzone did not end with shutting down the PlayStation. Here on MeinMMO, I wrote hundreds of articles about the Battle Royale, learning the job with the texts about Warzone.
I always wanted to provide the latest weapon setups, the best service, and win one victory after another with you. In the end, I had a ridiculous 12 in the big Battle Royale. But wow, did we have fun.
From 2020 deep into 2021, CoD: Warzone was my life. And it was a great time. Thank you.
