It seems as if the launch for the highly anticipated battle royale for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is finally around the corner, and an official reveal could arrive even sooner. Call of Duty: Warzone has been the leaked and not yet disclosed name of the mode for quite some time, but thanks to a countdown timer popping up on the main menu of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with less than 24 hours to go, players finally don't have to wait much longer.
The location of the timer, in the main menu of Modern Warfare, was where the classified section was located for over a month, since the launch of Season 2 on February 11, which also came with a battle royale teaser trailer in-game. More recently, Infinity Ward altered the classified section to read "Transmission Incoming," which obviously re-excited the fanbase. The timer is counting down to 8am Pacific/11am Eastern.
On top of the clock-down timer, recently Twitch ads have started to pop up with Call of Duty: Warzone information. Two things that are interesting to note about the ads. One, the advertisements point directly to PlayStation Plus membership. At this point, no information has leaned towards this being any sort of exclusive, so it is more likely simply a paid ad by PlayStation. And two, more interestingly, that the ad has zero mentions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This points to the theory that Call of Duty: Warzone will be a stand-alone free to play game, as well as being available inside of Modern Warfare as a separate mode.
Other than the few in-game menu changes, Activision and Infinity Ward have gone dark on any information about Warzone. This alone is why an in-game timer is in many ways thrilling, because when the clock hits zero, the game may be open to fans. Because no information has been shared directly from the developers so far on the battle royale, the only information people have been able to rely on is leaks. One of the only pieces of information that helped legitimize some of the leaks was how Activision was subpoenaing some of the leakers.
Fans have been searching high and low for any hints they can find about the game , including finding new execution animations for Warzone that seemingly only link to a battle royale. Players are hungry for a new Call of Duty battle royale experience, and any official word from the developers themselves would satiate some of that appetite.
In the case of a game like Apex Legends, which had a very successful launch, Respawn surprise revealed the game and made it available the same day it released all of its trailers, gameplay, etc. With that in mind, Activision and Infinity Ward could wait until the in-game timer hits zero and reveal the gameplay and make the game available as well. Or the timer could be a countdown to some gameplay alone, but not the game being available.
However, the more likely option, when it comes to large updates for Call of Duty recently, is that trailers and update information is made available the day before the update is made available. So when the timer hits zero, and Warzone is finally playable, fans could actually be getting substantial information even sooner than that. And fans won't have to rely on leaks about the size of the Warzone map, player counts, what guns are available, and more. But instead, they will be able to enjoy the game for themselves.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.