The original Call of Duty: Warzone is shutting down on September 21, 2023, as recently confirmed by Activision. The original Call of Duty: Warzone hit the scene in 2020 as a free-to-play experience tied to 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot. It was a smash hit, largely thanks to its Verdansk map and interesting battle royale innovations like the Gulag.The Call of Duty: Warzone that exists today is virtually unrecognizable when compared to the original. Activision made sweeping changes to the Call of Duty: Warzone Verdansk map, in line with other battle royale games on the market. Eventually, it dumped Verdansk entirely and replaced it with the Pacific map Caldera, tied to Call of Duty: Vanguard. Caldera was not nearly as popular as Verdansk, leading to plummeting interest in the battle royale.Despite this, Activision kept the servers live for the original Call of Duty: Warzone. The servers remained live even after the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. But now Activision has rebranded Warzone 2.0 and is just calling it Call of Duty: Warzone, while the actual original Call of Duty: Warzone is being shut down on September 21. Doing this will allow Activision's teams to focus on the new version of the game and projects like Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, which is expected to launch in the months ahead.
