Activision has announced that it will be shutting down the original Call Of Duty: Warzone, effective on September 21, 2023.
Servers for Caldera and all player progression from the first iteration of Warzone will be gone after that date, as the focus is now entirely on Warzone 2.0.
Activision made the announcement through a blog post on the official Call Of Duty website, where it cited right away that it would be focusing more on Warzone’s current iteration.
“As Warzone moves ahead with exciting new experiences to come, Warzone Caldera will shut down on September 21, 2023. All Caldera gameplay, player progression, inventories and online services will expire on that date.”
This isn’t all that too surprising of a move, but it is confusing when online servers for older titles are still active, and players can still enjoy those older iterations, but soon that won’t be true for the one that has skyrocketed Call Of Duty into a new snack bracket.
The release of Warzone ushered in a new era for the battle royale space, as a new dominating force entered, that remains the most popular subsection of the Call Of Duty fan base.
To see its original iteration go before others which arguably are past their own prime does feel odd, and speaks once again to how easy it is for live service titles to disappear once they’re taken down.
The removal of Caldera will not have an impact on your current Warzone progression, and if you have any purchased content from the original Warzone, whether it was through the 2019 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War or Vanguard, you’ll still be able to access that content in those base games.
“We all have had incredible Warzone experiences across the Call of Duty franchise since its first launch, including those in Warzone Caldera.”
That’s about as much eulogizing the original Warzone gets from Activision. A bit anti-climactic to say the least, as the rest of the blog post tries to get players who’ve yet to switch over on to Warzone 2.0.
Millions of players still hold dear memories from the first iconic Verdansk map before Caldera took its place, and it ultimately is sad to see a huge part of a game that further shaped the industry being sunset.
Source – [Activision]