Activision Blizzard announced its plans to shut down the original incarnation of Call of Duty: Warzone, known as Warzone Caldera, in September bringing a close to that chapter in the FPS' history.
Activision Blizzard announced the move this morning on their website, stating that the team is shifting to "focus on future Call of Duty content."
"We all have had incredible Warzone experiences across the Call of Duty franchise since its first launch, including those in Warzone Caldera. 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."
As such, Caldera, which the original Warzone has been known as since last November's drop of Warzone 2.0, will shutter on September 21st, 2023. This will make the original Warzone inaccessible, but those players who purchased items and such in the original incarnation will still be able to access them as part of the multiplayer modes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 launched last November and impressed us out the gate, even if it was flawed. Call of Duty has also been at the center of the ongoing Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft, with Sony pushing back against the acquisition for fear the Xbox maker could take Call of Duty off Sony's platform, something Microsoft has said won't happen.