From 2019 to 2022, the originalCall of Duty: Warzoneserved as the focal point of the franchise. Everything was tied to the successful free-to-play project, with the popularity of the battle royale game ensuring that the premium releases almost felt like less of a priority. Nearly everything in those titles would tie intoCall of Duty:Warzoneor be reused within it some way, from weapons and Operators to cosmetics and Prestige ranks. However, things changed a bit last year, and with the originalWarzone’s shutdown now right around the corner, they are changing once again.
With the lack of a console FOV slider and the premium releases’ graphics outpacing those of the firstWarzone, a new version was needed to coincide with the next-gen consoles. However, considering that the originalWarzonehad a bloating problem, as it featured all the weaponry and Operators from three heavily supported standalone games, a fresh start was needed. This meant thatCall of Duty: Warzone 2.0would not allow players to bring over the cosmetics they earned and paid for, but for a while,Call of Duty: Warzone Calderaserved as a workaround. Unfortunately, that will no longer be the case in a few months’ time.
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Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera’s Shutdown Means Cosmetics Are Lost for Battle Royale Fans
Activision has announced thatCall of Duty: Warzone Caldera, a version of the original game that has remained active sinceWarzone 2.0debuted, is being shut down on September 21. Once that date arrives, the Caldera map and the content available within it will be gone forever. While the exact reason for this shutdown was not provided, it can be assumed that Activision wants all its players to be engaged with the currentWarzone, as that is the game it is releasing paid and free content for.
While there is unsurprisingly outrage from the community about losing access to a battle royale game that some deemed superior to the newerWarzone, the bigger issue is cosmetics. After all, players earned many skins through gameplay challenges andCall of Duty’s Battle Passes, with even more being purchased with real money via the in-game marketplace. Unfortunately, just as it was whenWarzone 2.0launched, the current version ofWarzonewill not provide access to any of the existing cosmetics. This means that there will be no free-to-play battle royale experience whereCall of Dutyfans can use their old skins come September 21.
Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard Are The Last Places to Use Old Skins
WhileCall of Duty: WarzoneCaldera’s imminent shutdowndoes mean that the skins are lost for those who only play battle royale games, those who enjoy the widerCall of Dutyfranchise are not entirely out of luck. This is because every cosmetic released forCall of Dutybetween 2019 and 2022 was usable in two titles, those beingCall of Duty: Warzone Calderaand whichever game an Operator or gun was tied to.
Essentially, this means that players will still have one otherCall of Dutygame they can go to if they want to equip a skin or weapon blueprint they paid for. If they have a skin they like for the Operator Polina, they can load upCall of Duty: VanguardZombiesor multiplayer to make use of it. If they have a Frank Woods skin they bought inWarzone, they can still use it inBlack Ops Cold War, with the same being true for a Ghost attire since it can be used inModern Warfare. This same logic applies to weapon blueprints as well, as a blueprint for aVanguardgun can still be used inVanguarditself, even if it will be completely unavailable in the currentCall of Duty: Warzone.
Still, this is far from an ideal solution. After all, manyCall of Duty: Warzoneplayers will likely not own all of these games despite having skins for the characters that come from them. Some will also have playedWarzoneexclusively since they have no interest in multiplayer, buying cosmetics for a battle royale game because they expected to use them within abattle royale game. While keeping the cosmetics accessible in multiplayer is better than them being lost forever, as at least players can return to olderCall of Dutygames to make use of their paid content, losingWarzone Calderais going to be a massive blow. Buying aCall of Dutygame with wildly different gameplay and no more post-launch content planned purely to use some old skins will be hard to justify, meaning the cosmetics are effectively lost for a portion of the community.
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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