Call of Duty Warzone 1 (AKA Warzone Caldera) is saying goodnight forever, as servers shut down for good.
Back in March 2020, a new Battle Royale took the world by storm. Just as more and more people were suddenly home with a lot of free time, Call of Duty Warzone dropped and became an instant smash-hit.
Combining loot-focused tactical BR gameplay with the fast-paced action of a COD title, Warzone was unlike anything that had come before it.
And now, just three and a half years on from release, Call of Duty Warzone has officially shut down.
Warzone 1 Servers Are Going Offline Today
Warzone Caldera, the re-named original Warzone Battle Royale,is now permanently offline, as servers shut down on September 21, 2023 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST.
The decision to shut down the game’s servers was announced on June 22, 2023, via a post on Twitter (now X) that garnered an extremely negative reaction from the title’s fans.
What’s interesting is that Treyarch’s previous Call of Duty BR title, Blackout, still has servers live after 5 years.
But unlike Warzone Caldera, Blackout requires players to purchase Black Ops 4 in order to play, and taking a section of a paid experience offline may prove more problematic.
Speaking of paid content though, all cosmetics including skins, Operators, and all Weapon Blueprints that you paid for in Warzone 1 are now gone for good.
The only way of accessing them is inside their respective title, whether that’s Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War, or Vanguard.
And if you don’t own that game, you’re out of luck.
Why Did Warzone 1 Shut Down?
Warzone 1 appears to have shut down primarily to allow Activision to focus on Warzone 2.0, which has since been rebranded simply as ‘Warzone,’ as well as future Call of Duty content.
However, seeing as Warzone Caldera (1) itself wasn’t seeing any updates, many fans believe that the move was simply aimed at bringing the game’s player base over to Warzone 2.
In recent months, the new Warzone (formally known as 2.0) has been changing to become more like its predecessor.
Features like loadout purchasing, looting, the removal of AI, and more are all steadily reverting the Battle Royale to be more similar to Warzone 1.
And now, it appears that slide-canceling could even be returning to Warzone with MW3’s implementation too!