Summary

  • Season 3 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 addresses player concerns thanks to its focus on improving the core multiplayer map pool.
  • The upcoming season will introduce six brand-new 6v6 maps, setting a new standard for original content in the game's post-launch seasons.
  • Previous seasons have already added original maps, but Season 3's expansive lineup aims to fully establish Modern Warfare 3's unique multiplayer identity.

Fans of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are preparing for the game's upcoming Season 3, which is set to launch on April 3. Activision recently released a full roadmap for what content Season 3 will bring to core multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone, and the update is clearly shaping up to be the most jam-packed in the game's history.

These post-launch seasonal updates are one of the best ways that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 can directly address the most glaring and prominent issues that some players have with the release, and it seems that Season 3 is taking this to a whole other level. The recent roadmap for Season 3 showed a significant amount of attention will be placed on bolstering the core 6v6 map pool of Modern Warfare 3, serving as an excellent step toward the title finally moving away from one of its most longstanding criticisms.

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Maps Are at the Forefront of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Season 3

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Many fans were surprised at the news of Modern Warfare 3's 2023 release, with MW2 having just been released one year prior. This sequential release schedule for a single sub-franchise is quite unusual for Call of Duty, with it being assumed that MW3 would need a significantly longer development cycle before being launched. Because of this rapid turnaround and short time in development, it is clear that MW3 suffered in the amount of original content that it could realistically feature, with a lot of its substance coming from past entries to the CoD franchise.

While the campaign of MW3 was criticized for its short length and Zombies for its use of Warzone assets, the map pool of the game's multiplayer was arguably its most controversial element. At launch, the entirety of Modern Warfare 3's 6v6 maps were composed of maps from 2009's Modern Warfare 2, leaving some players to accuse the release of lacking its own unique multiplayer identity.

The in-game seasons for Modern Warfare 3 have slowly but surely been rectifying this, with several completely original 6v6 maps having been added to the game post-launch. So far, the following brand-new 6v6 maps have been added to Modern Warfare 3 through seasonal updates:

  • Greece
  • Meat
  • Rio
  • Departures
  • Stash House
  • Vista

MW3's Season 3 Map Pool Sets a New Standard

These new maps have been added alongside re-skins of older franchise maps like Das Haus, yet the upcoming Season 3 of Modern Warfare 3 is set to add a staggering six fresh 6v6 maps to the game's roster. Three of these maps will come at the start of the season, namely Emergency, Six Star, and Tanked, with Grime, Growhouse, and Checkpoint dropping later on in the season.

While Growhouse is a remaster of the map Sphere from 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard, the five other Season 3 maps are entirely original, significantly bolstering the unique content that MW3's core multiplayer possesses. The first two seasons for MW3 only introduced three completely original maps each, making the five original experiences in Season 3 all the more impressive. It is true that Modern Warfare 3 has had to contend with negativity surrounding its map pool for some time, but the sheer amount of brand-new content that is set to come in Season 3 may finally lay these criticisms to rest.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) Tag Page Cover Art
6 /10

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III
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First-Person Shooter
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 58 /100 Critics Rec: 14%
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Released
November 10, 2023
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
Developer(s)
Sledgehammer Games
Publisher(s)
Activision
Engine
iw 9.0
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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Split Screen Orientation
Horizontal Only
Genre(s)
First-Person Shooter
How Long To Beat
5 Hours
Metascore
60
Platforms That Support Crossplay
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
PS Plus Availability
N/A
Local Co-Op Support
1-2 Players