It’s the end of an era - the original Call of Duty: Warzone (which was relaunched and renamed to Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera last year) is being shut down permanently today (September 21).
The decision to close the game was announced back in June, when it was confirmed that all progress and inventories will expire along with the online services. Unfortunately, as was the case at Warzone 2’s launch, there’s no way to transfer progress from the original game to the sequel. However, purchased items in Caldera from Modern Warfare (2019), Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard will remain accessible in those games.
“We all have had incredible Warzone experiences across the Call of Duty franchise since its first launch, including those in Warzone Caldera,” a statement released in June said. It noted that, with the shutdown, the development teams will move to focus on “future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone free-to-play experience”.
At the time of writing, it’s not clear exactly what time Warzone Caldera will be shutting down - social media is still full of players squeezing in their final matches before the game is gone for good. Needless to say, if you want to do the same, it seems advisable to jump on that as soon as you can.
Warzone Caldera’s existence has been rather short-lived. While the original Warzone launched in 2020, it was taken offline temporarily when Warzone 2 released in November last year. After a couple of weeks, it rocked up with its new name at the end of the month, meaning that it’s been live in its current form for less than a year.
Thankfully, it’s not all bad news for Call of Duty players since the release of Modern Warfare 3 (2023) is getting closer and closer. The direct sequel to 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 will launch on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One on November 10.
For more games like Call of Duty, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best FPS games. You can also find more titles to play for free with our roundup of the best free games.
