Summary
- Verdansk is here to stay in Call of Duty: Warzone, with players flocking back to the title after the map's reintroduction earlier in April.
- The developers say that everything players have seen so far is just the beginning of the map's journey in 2025.
Call of Duty: Warzone developers have confirmed that Verdansk is here to stay, with a bright future ahead for the map. Since Verdansk's return, the game has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, and reports suggest the title's player count has seen a notable increase. Some are calling the map a "self-revive" kit, believing it has saved Call of Duty: Warzone from being abandoned by gamers entirely.
Warzone reintroduced Verdansk on April 3, celebrating the game's fifth anniversary. The map was initially revamped in 2021, taking it back to 1984 after the original Verdansk was nuked. In the years that followed, the game replaced Verdansk 84 with an entirely new location called Caldera, which never matched its predecessor in popularity. Since Verdansk's removal, fans have been urging developers Infinity Ward and Raven Software to bring it back, despite their earlier message stating that it would not be making a return.
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In an interview with IGN, Pete Actipis and Etienne Pouliot, two of the directors who worked on Verdansk's return, confirmed that the map is here to stay. When discussing future plans for Warzone' s Verdansk, they revealed that everything players have seen so far is just the beginning of the map's journey in 2025. According to the pair, the development team is just as passionate about the map as the players and plans to invest more resources into it moving forward. They also addressed the presence of unrealistic Operators in Warzone, suggesting they would remain in the game as the team didn't want to create "a facsimile of that old experience."
Warzone Has 'Great Surprises' in Store for Verdansk
Ending the interview with thank-you messages, Actipis and Pouliot also teased some big news on the horizon. "The launch of Verdansk, the simplification of our systems and mechanics, and just the flow, is the beginning. We're going to cultivate the game, and we’re pretty excited about our roadmap moving forward. We've got some great surprises that I'm not going to spoil today," said Actipis. It's worth noting that Warzone has seen record-breaking numbers since Verdansk's re-release, which should also reassure fans that Call of Duty has no plans to let it go anytime soon.
For those curious about how Warzone' s lore and plot development will explain Verdansk's return, the directors had a somewhat anti-climactic response. The pair explained that bringing back Verdansk was mostly about invoking nostalgia, and the current state of the game might not fully align with the official lore. However, Pouliot also mentioned that there are hidden details in Verdansk, like the nuclear missile near the stadium, which could hint at what has happened in the game's universe. Despite potential plot holes, fans seem thrilled about the return of the original map and appear willing to overlook any inconsistencies.
Call of Duty: Warzone
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 78%
- Released
- March 10, 2020
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Infinity Ward, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
- Engine
- IW 8.0 & IW 9.0 (Warzone 2.0)
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- First-Person Shooter, Battle Royale
