[UPDATE: An Activision representative has confirmed to Game Rant that the "2.0" has been dropped from the Warzone name.]
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is officially undergoing a name change. This comes right alongside details of its long-rumored Season 4 content.
Call of Duty has more than cemented itself as a dominant player among first-person shooters in recent decades. As just one of dozens of entries that have been released near-annually at this point, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is a standalone add-on for Modern Warfare 2 and is the franchise's third foray into the free-to-play realm. Since its late 2022 release, the battle royale entry has garnered mostly favorable reviews and is so far on its third season of additional paid content, each pack adding new maps, weapons, operators, campaign missions, gameplay mechanics, and even a few time-limited modes.
The contents of Season 4 have been officially detailed, including new stuff for both Warzone 2.0 and the base Modern Warfare 2. The former is set to receive a new map named Vondel, complete with four exclusive gameplay gimmicks, three exclusive DMZ updates, and an exclusive lockdown mode that will be playable for a limited time. Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 2 is getting three modes and four maps, including fan-favorite Showdown from Call of Duty 4, alongside the usual weapons, operators, and story missions, and it's all set to drop on June 14. It seems to just be business as usual, but one notable detail of the Season 4 reveal, as reported by Pure Xbox, is the lack of a "2.0" by Warzone 2.0's name.
No details were provided as to why the game is being rebranded, but the original Call of Duty: Warzone released in 2020 has been referred to as "Warzone Caldera" (in reference to the game's Caldera map) as of late, as a means to differentiate it. As this very likely isn't just a small typo on Activision Blizzard's part, perhaps the change was made to make the 2022 version sound more like a new game rather than merely a revised edition of an existing one. Naming problems such as this one have been proven to have devastating consequences in the gaming industry before.
Such a change could indeed make a lot of sense, considering Warzone 2.0's notoriously poor ability to retain players compared to its predecessor. Maybe treating this game as the official Warzone, keeping it up and running, and making consumers believe the last game is something different and lesser could be enough to save face. It could draw in more fans and make it more profitable, even if it does come at the cost of the more successful previous game.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Call of Duty Blog, Pure Xbox