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From 2019 to 2022, the original Call of Duty: Warzone served as the focal point of the franchise. Everything was tied to the successful free-to-play project, with the popularity of the battle royale game ensuring that the premium releases almost felt like less of a priority. Nearly everything in those titles would tie into Call of Duty:Warzone or be reused within it some way, from weapons and Operators to cosmetics and Prestige ranks. However, things changed a bit last year, and with the original Warzone’s shutdown now right around the corner, they are changing once again.
With the lack of a console FOV slider and the premium releases’ graphics outpacing those of the first Warzone, a new version was needed to coincide with the next-gen consoles. However, considering that the original Warzone had a bloating problem, as it featured all the weaponry and Operators from three heavily supported standalone games, a fresh start was needed. This meant that Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 would not allow players to bring over the cosmetics they earned and paid for, but for a while, Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera served as a workaround. Unfortunately, that will no longer be the case in a few months’ time.
Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera’s Shutdown Means Cosmetics Are Lost for Battle Royale Fans
Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, a version of the original game that has remained active since Warzone 2.0 debuted, is being shut down on September 21. Once that date arrives, the Caldera map and the content available within it will be gone forever. While the exact reason for this shutdown was not provided, it can be assumed that Activision wants all its players to be engaged with the current Warzone, as that is the game it is releasing paid and free content for.
While there is unsurprisingly outrage from the community about losing access to a battle royale game that some deemed superior to the newer Warzone, the bigger issue is cosmetics. After all, players earned many skins through gameplay challenges and Call of Duty’s Battle Passes, with even more being purchased with real money via the in-game marketplace. Unfortunately, just as it was when Warzone 2.0 launched, the current version of Warzone will not provide access to any of the existing cosmetics. This means that there will be no free-to-play battle royale experience where Call of Duty fans can use their old skins come September 21.
Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard Are The Last Places to Use Old Skins
While Call of Duty: WarzoneCaldera’s imminent shutdown does mean that the skins are lost for those who only play battle royale games, those who enjoy the wider Call of Duty franchise are not entirely out of luck. This is because every cosmetic released for Call of Duty between 2019 and 2022 was usable in two titles, those being Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera and whichever game an Operator or gun was tied to.
Essentially, this means that players will still have one other Call of Duty game they can go to if they want to equip a skin or weapon blueprint they paid for. If they have a skin they like for the Operator Polina, they can load up Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies or multiplayer to make use of it. If they have a Frank Woods skin they bought in Warzone, they can still use it in Black Ops Cold War, with the same being true for a Ghost attire since it can be used in Modern Warfare. This same logic applies to weapon blueprints as well, as a blueprint for a Vanguard gun can still be used in Vanguard itself, even if it will be completely unavailable in the current Call of Duty: Warzone.
Still, this is far from an ideal solution. After all, many Call of Duty: Warzone players will likely not own all of these games despite having skins for the characters that come from them. Some will also have played Warzone exclusively since they have no interest in multiplayer, buying cosmetics for a battle royale game because they expected to use them within a battle royale game. While keeping the cosmetics accessible in multiplayer is better than them being lost forever, as at least players can return to older Call of Duty games to make use of their paid content, losing Warzone Caldera is going to be a massive blow. Buying a Call of Duty game with wildly different gameplay and no more post-launch content planned purely to use some old skins will be hard to justify, meaning the cosmetics are effectively lost for a portion of the community.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
