It’s been over nine months since I first reported that Warzone 2 was built on the foundations of the new DMZ mode. Last week’s COD NEXT event seemingly proved the details, with Warzone 2.0 playing more like an extraction-based shooter instead of a Battle Royale. Creators have already expressed their concerns online, with almost everyone sharing the same opinion; the changes have fundamentally changed Warzone.
Strongholds, AI, and a lack of loadouts are arguably some of the biggest changes fans have noticed, and those changes are because of the DMZ.
It’s understood that the DMZ has been in development for around four years, with Activision and its studios wanting to capitalize on the new biggest thing, extraction gamemodes. However, with the instant success of Warzone, those plans seemingly paused.
Warzone was always intended as a Blackout-like Battle Royale experience, where the game would lose support after the next game released. Its overwhelming success, however, meant that the game would become a mutli-year and multi-game powerhouse that the developers hadn’t anticipated. The game integrations were reportedly “near impossible to implement” said one developer, but “we managed to pull it off”, they continued.
Black Ops Cold War’s integration was the ammo needed to justify a new free-to-play experience, and that experience would be Warzone 2. With DMZ already laying the foundations, a new Battle Royale was born. Much-needed technological advancements were at the forefront of the decision, but why Warzone 2 contains so many unnecessary changes remains a mystery.
As rumors around the community circulated regarding DMZ having multiple maps, one developer had even said “why the f**k would we give more work to ourselves” when asked. “It’s all on the same map”, they clarified.
It’s not quite understood how different the DMZ will be from Warzone 2, but what we do know is that the gamemode is extraction-based and will contain AI. Sources have previously mentioned that the developers were experimenting with the likes of AI repelling from helicopters, arriving in cars, and even coming in Juggernauts, but it’s not clear if these details will come to fruition.
It’s understood that DMZ was intended to release as a part of the Modern Warfare 2 package, but for whatever reason, those plans changed earlier this year. It’s not known why the plans seemingly changed, but I hope it’s not because both experiences are so similar to one another that one will end up being “just another mode” to the other.
For more on Warzone 2, you can check out every POI on the map, which will be named Al Mazrah.
