Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2 Coming This Year

While it may be of little surprise to many, Infinity Ward and Activision have confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 is coming this year.  Numerous rumors have popped up after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard earlier this year, but a recent Tweet from the Call of Duty Twitter has put most of those to rest.  Granted, we do not know the long-term effect the new ownership will have on the series going forward and it is highly likely that this release was completely unaffected by the purchase.

The teaser showed a logo for Task Force 141, which was the protagonist group for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), but does not have any information about the game itself or what the group will be involved in.  It is safe to assume that the game is not a simple remake of Modern Warfare 2 as the company is taking steps to differentiate it from the older game.

Speaking of those steps, the series appears to be switching to Roman numerals to number the games going forward so there is no confusion about the non-Roman numerical games with the exact same name.  While that might do little to remove confusion for the casual gamer, the excitement for the new game is certainly not small as it follows up the most successful Call of Duty of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. 

Warzone 2 also appears to be coming in as a free-to-play game separate from Modern Warfare II.  Activision has focused marketing on the new Warzone being “built from the ground up” as a Battle Royale game.  This might mean better performance and fewer bugs as it will be a full-featured stand-alone game, unlike Warzone which was heavily entangled with the original Modern Warfare and following CoD games (although this is Activision we are dealing with here, so only time will tell).