With the first year of Call of Duty: Warzone being an absolute success, many fans are curious to know when a new map is coming. Here’s everything we know so far about a new Battle Royale map, potential release date and how it will interact with Black Ops Cold War.
When Rebirth Island was launched in Warzone, it is probably fair to say that some players were a little disappointed. The map, which is based on the original Black Ops ‘Rebirth’ mission, was never intended to be a new Battle Royale map, but still left some players feeling slightly modified. A large map, the size of Verdansk (or slightly larger, if there are recent rumors), should appear later.
There are already rumors about another new Warzone scenario, although Rebirth Island was only released with the first season in mid-December. This update also saw Black Ops Cold War integrated into Warzone, but this is far from the end of BOCW’s influence in Warzone.
The Rebirth Island map offers players a chaotic and fast gaming experience.
Ural Mountains War Zone Map
The most prominent rumor surrounding a future map of the war zone is that it will have great influence from the maps of Fireteam: Dirty Bomb from Black Ops Cold War.
The current maps in the new Treyarch mode are Alpine, Ruka and Sanatorium, all located in the Ural Mountains, Russia. Ruka is codenamed ‘wz_forest’ in the game files, while Alpine’s is ‘wz_ski_slopes’. Likewise, fans noticed that Sanatorium has been disabled as ‘wz_sanatorium’ in the game files.
As a 40-player game mode, FTDB maps are considerably larger than a standard 6v6 map. Speculation suggests that they would fit as different POIs on a larger Battle Royale map. According to current speculations, the Sanatorium would be in the southwest, Alpine in the southeast and Ruka in the center.
This new map would therefore be an easy transition. Fireteam already uses several Warzone mechanics, such as parachuting, states of falling, but not exit, pings, armor and loot.
Ruka is situated in the Ural Mountains, a real life mountain range in modern Russia.
Given the links with Black Ops Cold War, we could very well see yet another cross between battle royale and the 2020 CoD installment. More weapons will make the switch as Treyarch adds them, with scorestreaks and vehicles also possible.
Fireteam maps have vehicles such as T-72 tanks, Dirt Bikes, Buggies, Snowmobiles and Helicopters, some of which are already available in Warzone. Rumors also state that, like Black Ops 4’s Blackout Battle Royale, there will be water that can be traversed by boats.
Finally, there are suggestions that some historical CoD maps may be presented as POIs. Summit and WMD, for example, are both set in the Ural Mountains. In fact, weapons of mass destruction are set at Mount Yamantau, a mountain whose name was specifically verified in a recent Easter egg document from Rebirth Island. Some fans took this as a hint of the future return of WMD.
WMD has already been remastered once – featuring in Black Ops 4.
New war zone map release date
At the time of writing, these details were strictly rumored, with the possible implementation of a map of the Ural Mountains still a little distant. Leaks and rumors suggested a March 2021 release date, which would coincide with Warzone’s one-year anniversary.
It is possible that Treyarch is delaying until new maps (which would form vital POIs from a war zone map) have been launched in the Cold War Black Ops. As mentioned earlier, Fireteam players can go to Sanatorium now.
War zone players, on the other hand, can expect anything Raven Software has in store. Even if these rumors are not correct, it seems that we are building something big.
What about Verdansk?
Downtown Verdansk – one of the most popular areas in the war zone.
So far, Warzone has simply focused on updating the current map, Verdansk, rather than adding any completely new maps (despite Rebirth Island).
It is not known if more changes to the map are planned for Verdansk, but with so much history and interesting new areas added in season 1, we hope there is still more planning.