In the latter part of last week, it was announced that Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera — otherwise known as the original version of Warzone before 2.0 came along — would be shutting its servers on September 21st, 2023.
In a message to fans, it was explained that the focus was now on "future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone free-to-play experience". Here's a brief extract from the statement:
"As of September 21, 2023, Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Caldera will shut down, as our teams focus on future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone free-to-play experience."
"All Caldera gameplay, player progression, inventories and online services will expire on that date."
As you can probably imagine, this hasn't gone down well at all with Warzone Caldera players, many of which have been pointing out that some of the money they spent on the game is basically now wasted:
It's undoubtedly been an angry reaction from Call of Duty fans over the past few days, but it seems unlikely that Activision will end up extending the lifespan of the original Warzone at this point — even despite the seemingly large player base. Ultimately, it seems the focus is on trying to migrate everyone over to the new version ASAP.
In terms of what's to come, Activision simply says that players should "prepare for even more Warzone content across consoles and PC", while the upcoming Warzone Mobile will also include a shared Battle Pass and cross-progression.
What are your thoughts about this? Tell us down in the comments section below.
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Activision already has arguably the worst customer service in the industry (yes, worse than even Sony), so I’m not shocked by this move or attitude toward their players.
@Kaloudz Me too. But since I have only played the original years ago and haven't touched CoD ever since, I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. It just would make sense to me that Warzone 1 would automatically be upgraded into 2, taking all previously purchased cosmetics with them.
So fussy about COD, we got fish at home
I’m all for live service games, but a 3 year game window is not sufficient to justify trusting them in future iterations. They should’ve taken some launch notes from Overwatch 2.
There’s nothing anybody can do and I’m pretty sure Activision have something in the terms and conditions that people agree to before they can play about being able to take down the service and so on. I also remember people not being happy when Sony took down PS Home on the PS3 for the same reason because they spent so much money on there.
When Caldera came I played it every season just too see how stood up. I didn't enjoy Caldera at all. The map never got better and was a shame that Verdansk was replaced by this. However Caldera did have some QoL updates like squads total money, gas mask toggle and other QoL updates Verdansk never got.
Meanwhile in Warzone 2.0 those QoL updates have not even been implemented. I thought I idea of having another game was to make it better and add the feedback.
IW have been really shameful and embarrassing when it comes to Modern Warfare II, they ain't just to blame of course, Activision is a major factor to it too. Modern Warfare II doesn't seem to be having any decent QoL updates nor feedback being listened too. Modern Warfare 19 is an absolute monster compared to Modern Warfare II, I thought number II was meant to be better?
Regarding this issue, I feel like they want everyone to transition to Warzone 2.0 to rake in more money by bundles.
@Techno92LFC
Yeah I believe they have the ability to take away, change and shut down anything even when a user has paid. I believe that's what I read in the small print of buying a bundle I miss when Activision didn't care about money, I miss the BO2 days
People who play Activision games deserve whatever they get thrown in their face. I don't care about those gamers at all. It is their choice. Everyone knows how bad the company is.
I still hope the Activision deal falls through - although it certainly seems that MS has the momentum in the case.
Greatest BR ever, I wouldn't go that far. This is typical Activision-Blizzard, multiplayer players have been dealing with this for years that progress and skins don't care over from game to game so why is this all of a sudden a shocker?
@BeerIsAwesome Sony has a phone line. It’s not a very good phone line. I have had to call customer service twice with them and if there is ever a third time I’ll think about it, I’ll be aware I’m screwed beforehand. Still better than Activision though.
At least Sony didn’t have a data breach that affected thousands of players and leaked personal information of mine and then refused to take accountability or action for it. Instead they locked me from all my Activision games, banned my Activision and Battle.net accounts, and refused to assess the fact that my account was stolen from me. I was able to find a paper trail of the people that bought and sold my account too because the hackers weren’t smart enough to hide some of the things they did too. Didn’t matter. The only way I’ll buy another Activision game is if Xbox buys them. At least I know Xbox has customer service.
Things like this are why I don't spend money on free to play games.
I still don’t understand why this exists and has multiple iterations.
Is this not cannibalizing the “main” game’s player base?
Damn. This is definitely the Ubisoft camp of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They love the idea of having one game that they can keep earning money from constantly, but also love the thought of getting people to buy another one the following year too.
@BeerIsAwesome Lol. That’s like a slap in the face getting Terminator Salvation, but it’s the gesture that counts I guess.
Activision, I wish they would’ve done something human in response to it. They blamed me then acknowledged that they got hacked and backed off blaming me when I showed them the paper trail. Since I couldn’t access Cold War at the time and had bought it one month before the issue, I asked them for a refund on the game if I couldn’t play it. They declined and said there was nothing they could do and started blaming me again. I filed a complaint with any labor/consumer advocacy organization I could. Hope they got a fine because they were too cheap to reimburse a $70 game.
@somnambulance sony customer service isn't bad from my experience to compare them to. I've not contacted Sony in years so might be different now, but when I did contact Sony for help, they were easy to get a hold of and I've always had my issues resolved.
I played Warzone (Verdansk) during covid and enjoyed it. Lost any interest in Warzone 2.0 when they confirmed that the handful of cosmetics I’d bought wouldn’t transfer over. Kinda wish they’d taken a cue from Valve’s transition from Counter-Strike to Counter-Strike 2 - i.e. anything you’ve paid for, you can carry on using, etc
@CutchuSlow My issues with Sony customer service is that they take FOREVER to let you speak with them and they don’t tend to correct issues. When PS+ Premium first launched, I had a year of PS Now still in rotation and they didn’t honor the upgrade free of charge as they had promised, for instance. I waited for two hours to get through and then told me I was right, but there was nothing they could do. When Death Stranding Director’s Cut came out, I couldn’t transfer my save data, so they recommended I start the game over and enjoy it from the beginning. I mean, I love the game, but no. Robot responses. An apology for the inconvenience would’ve been nice. I work in claims and customer resolution, so I just get annoyed when I get a sort of non-response.
I also don’t like that, if you dislike a game you preordered, you can’t always cancel the preorder or “return” a digital game. Other platforms work with that a little better.
@BeerIsAwesome I’m guessing they’ll use Xbox support for Activision. I wouldn’t be surprised if random employees email people back with regards to customer service issues rather than someone whose job it is. Xbox support has always been pretty solid.
@somnambulance oh ok. Back when I used ps, they weren't that slow to respond, but that was 3+ years ago. For me, I've only had bad experiences when trying to get a hold of xbox customer support. It's always bots. Never human. In the end, I never got my issue resolved.
I had Awesome Times with this one but I honestly thought it had already shut down.... It makes sense as Warzone 2.0 is out
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