Call of Duty Is Shutting Down the Original Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera is officially shutting down in a few months, Activision announced this week. This version of Call of Duty: Warzone, for those who may have been playing on Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and have forgotten all about this one, is essentially the lite, legacy version of Warzone played on the old Caldera map by those who didn’t want to switch over to Warzone 2’s Al Mazrah. September 21st will mark the end of Caldera, Activision said, but the company promised that “even more Warzone content” is on the way for players in the future.

The end of Caldera was announced on Thursday with a brief blog post accompanying the news to explain what this end of live for the original Warzone will look like. For players, however, there’s not much to take in: When September 21st comes around, you simply won’t be able to play on Caldera any more. Everything that version of Warzone offers including the map itself and player progression you’ve amassed there over the years will expire completely.

“As Warzone moves ahead with exciting new experiences to come, Warzone Caldera will shut down on September 21, 2023,” Activision said. “All Caldera gameplay, player progression, inventories and online services will expire on that date.”

As #Warzone moves ahead with exciting new experiences to come, Warzone Caldera will shut down on Sept 21.

All Caldera gameplay, player progression, inventories and online services will expire on that date. Learn more👉 https://t.co/BmN8sEOlZ7 pic.twitter.com/MH83AkeHUl

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) June 22, 2023

Players should’ve anticipated this if they hadn’t already given that it seemed inevitable the original Warzone would be shut down at some point. While the new iteration of the battle royale game was first called Warzone 2 or Warzone 2.0, Activision has over time shifted to calling it simply Warzone again with Caldera being the “other” that’s seldomly talked about.

For those who haven’t yet made the transition to the new Warzone experience, Activision previewed some of what’s offered there while teasing its plans for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

“Players should prepare for even more Warzone content across consoles and PC, as well as a new era of Battle Royale on the go with the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, which includes a shared Battle Pass and cross-progression. The Call of Duty team and Studios look forward to sharing more details soon.”