The original Warzone Battle Royale map is set to return in Black Ops 6 Season 3, but some COD fans are already hoping Verdansk’s comeback will be a failure.
Call of Duty is a pretty divisive community, even when it comes to its own releases. Back in 2020, there can be no doubt that Activision revitalized the franchise with the release of Warzone, a free-to-play Battle Royale that launched just as the world was going into lockdown.
Warzone exploded in popularity, and COD as a whole benefited from the tremendous success. But in the years since, and with multiple game integrations being injected into the Battle Royale, Warzone has steadily been on the decline.
Now, Activision is bringing back the original BR map, Verdansk, in the hopes of bringing back players and recapturing some of its initial success. But some users are already rooting for this comeback to fail.
Why Verdansk Failing Could Be Good for COD
Some users in the Call of Duty community seem to believe that Verdansk failing to revitalize Warzone would be a positive thing, due to Activision repeatedly prioritizing the mode in recent years.
The recent debate was sparked by an exclusive leak from TheGhostOfHope over on X, which reports that a new Warzone accompanying 2026’s ‘Modern Warfare 4’ will only arrive if Verdansk’s return is a success.
One common argument we’re seeing online lately is that if Verdansk fails to retain players and Activision moves on from Warzone for good, we’ll start to see Multiplayer and Zombies become more of a priority in future.
Realistically, this probably isn’t the case. Activision likely has a large team at Raven Software and other supporting studios who are solely dedicated to developing Warzone content.
If its Battle Royale goes away for good, we think it’s likely that the studios will see widespread layoffs, as not every developer will be able to be reassigned.
Some COD Zombies fans believe that the mode has been made too simple in order to cater to the Warzone player base.
The most obvious evidence for this was the release of Modern Warfare 3’s Zombies mode (MWZ), which took place on the entire Warzone map rather than being a self-contained round-based experience.
Activision even reported that MWZ was the most popular third mode in Call of Duty history, which likely only incentivized the publisher to keep the focus on Warzone-style content.
And it might not be wrong to do so, at least where most of the player base is concerned. After all, Liberty Falls is seen as the most casual Zombies experience in Black Ops 6, yet Activision reports it’s also by far the most played map.
Will Verdansk Be Enough to Save Warzone?
It’s hard to tell whether or not Verdansk’s return will be the success the publisher hopes for.
Activision recently delayed Black Ops 6 Season 3 in order to ensure the map is as ready as can be – but this also means our next Zombies map just got delayed too!
Fortnite OG saw tremendous levels of success back in 2023 and has since become a permanent gamemode inside Epic Games’ Battle Royale. We expect that Activision wants the same for Warzone, but there’s one major problem.
Unless Call of Duty goes back to the Modern Warfare 2019 engine and brings back the same gunplay and driving mechanics it had back in the original days of Verdansk, things are going to feel very different.
Racing around the map with Omnimovement and guns from the 90s probably isn’t what most players had in mind, after all.
Whether you’re rooting for the map or against it, it’ll certainly be interesting to see what Activision has in store for us when Season 3 arrives.
And, speaking of the upcoming season, here’s everything we know about Black Ops 6 Zombies’ new Liberty Falls Mansion map!