With Fortnite et Apex Legends, Call of Duty: War zone is probably the most popular Battle Royale on the planet. But the page could soon turn for Activision. Indeed it has been several months now that the rumor of a Warzone 2 looms. So let's take stock of what we know and hope for this new version of the famous FPS competitive.
If it is still played a lot and continues to bring entire briefcases of greenbacks to its publisher, Call of Duty: Warzone is also a technically aging title, in addition to being recently impacted by numerous bugs that plague the game. gaming experience.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 soon to be announced?
This is the little music that has been ringing for a few days on the Internet. According to the often very well-informed independent journalist, Tom Henderson, the announcement of Warzone 2 is imminent. In fact, it could be released at the same time as that concerning the future opus of Call of Duty, the supposed Modern Warfare 2.
According to the journalist's sources, all of this will even be made official today, Friday February 11, 2022. Activision has in particular already organized presentations with influencers and prepared all the material intended for the press, which is only waiting for the lifting of the embargo to be sent.
A Warzone 2 to start from scratch
But why the hell design a Warzone 2 when the current Battle Royale continues to stir some 100 million players daily? Because of many technical limitations, understands Tom Henderson.
Indeed, the current model asks developers to shoehorn the latest Call of Duty canon into the Battle Royale released in 2020. Lately, it's Call of Duty: Vanguard, with its WWII battles world, which must have found its place in a game that has rather accustomed us to modern warfare.
But, according to Henderson, it was the integration of Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War in 2020 that caused teams the most problems. The latter not being designed on the same engine as Modern Warfare and Warzone, it required a titanic work on the part of the Raven Software teams to succeed in melting it into the mold of their Battle Royale. Causing in passing many technical problems a priori difficult to correct now that Vanguard, which uses the original Warzone engine, has arrived.
In short: a hell of a job, crippled by poor workmanship, which it would be better to start from scratch rather than continue to iterate on unstable foundations. Hence the Warzone 2 project.
How will Warzone 2 look like?
Of course, we don't know all the details of the project yet. Also, let's be honest, it's unlikely that this "new Warzone" will be officially called Warzone 2. It's much more likely that this new version will simply replace the old one. But as to what will become of the Warzone we all know, the unknown remains to be resolved.
Tom Henderson advances the hypothesis that the latter will remain accessible under the name Warzone Legacy. A bit like World of Warcraft Classic servers, if we can try the comparison.
Which brings us to a major sticking point though: Warzone 2 is very likely to skip older consoles.
Warzone 2 on PS4 and Xbox One? Unlikely
We understand that the whole point of the project is to set the record straight and get rid of the superfluous. It is also an opportunity for the Raven and Infinity Ward teams to inflate the technique of Warzone a little, which is currently playable on old and new generation consoles in addition to the PC.
However, Tom Henderson wrote at the end of January that an old-gen version of Warzone 2 was unlikely, precisely because of their technical limitations. Note that the teams still seem to be arbitrating this decision. But, in any case, the possibility of a cross-generation option is badly engaged.
In other words, the current version of Warzone would continue to be available on old generation platforms, when the new one would be intended primarily for PS5 and Xbox Series players. A rather risky bet for Activision, as the installed base of consoles is far, very far from being as large as for the PS4 and the Xbox One, which together represent more than 130 million machines in the world.
What we expect from Warzone 2
Given the current state of Call of Duty: Warzone, it goes without saying that we are above all expecting a game that is less buggy, and as long as it is, that can start again on a sound basis.
That's the whole point here: to continue the success story of the Battle Royale while improving an aging formula. Also we do not yet know what to expect for Warzone 2. We just know, according to Henderson, that the console versions of the title will offer from launch a slider to adjust the field of vision (FOV). Arguably the most requested feature by the community since the game launched in 2020.
Moreover, we will have to see how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is shaping up before speculating on Warzone 2, which will be the Battle Royale during it. But as we said in the preamble, the wait should not be very long.
