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In 2017, Activision published its own military-themed spin on the nascent battle royale genre with Call of Duty: Online. They followed that up with 2018’s Blackout (a battle royale expansion of Black Ops 4). Those modes proved to be successful enough, but it was 20220’s Call of Duty: Warzone, released in 2020, that took Call of Duty battle royale games to new limits. Activision is publishing an upgrade that is waiting just around the corner.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is finally scheduled to be released on November 16th. What is so “2.0” about the battle royale? For starters, the update will introduce the new map of Al Mazrah, add the ability to swim (and ambush enemies from the water), and give players plenty of vehicles to drive and fly around the warzone. These new features are already making fans so excited, though many of those fans are really just wondering when they’ll be able to actually try those new features.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 will be released at 10 AM PT. Mind you, that launch time won’t be staggered across the globe. Once it’s 10 AM on the West Coast, everyone can start playing the updated battle royale mode. In other words, East Coast players will have to wait until 1 PM, UK players won’t be able to play until 6 PM, and so on and so forth. That is a bit unusual so far as release structures go, but the upshot of that format is that nobody will get a head start on other players, which is a blessing in disguise since Warzone 2.0 will reset all game progress and inventory.
Even though nobody can play Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 until the 16th, everyone can start downloading the game right now. On November 14, Activision opened the preload floodgates, which means that everyone who plans on playing at launch should take advantage of that running start. Downloading the game right now will take up around 24 GB of storage space on computers (via Steam) and less than 50 GB on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. But when Warzone 2.0 releases, gamers will eventually need anywhere between 115 and 125 GB of space, depending on their platform. Here’s hoping everyone freed up the requisite space and has a fast internet connection since they’ll probably need the extra data to play.
Since Warzone 2.0 is essentially an updated version of Warzone, it’s only natural to assume it will replace the vanilla Warzone experience. After all, when Blizzard released Overwatch 2, the company shuttered all Overwatch services. However, that won’t exactly be the case. Earlier this month, Activision published a blog post that stated in no uncertain terms Call of Duty Warzone isn’t going anywhere. Well, sort of. On November 16 at 8 AM PT, Call of Duty Warzone‘s servers will temporarily go offline so the developers (Raven Software) can reallocate resources to ensure as smooth a launch as possible for Warzone 2.0. At around 10 AM PT on November 28, Warzone servers will come back online, though the game will be relabeled as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera. Oh, and anyone who plays or played Warzone prior to the launch of Warzone 2.0 will receive a few in-game items as a thank you gift.