Despite showcasing a brand new Resurgence map and a mountain of fresh features and improvements, arguably the biggest bit of Call of Duty Warzone news to come out of CoD Next is this: Verdansk is officially returning to Warzone during the Black Ops 6 era.
Rumors have been circling for months now that the battle royale game‘s iconic original map would be making a comeback. Many hoped that Verdansk would arrive in Call of Duty Warzone alongside the Black Ops 6 release date and its big annual overhaul. However, Area 99 was announced as the next new map instead. Today’s CoD Next livestream has shown off loads of gameplay of Area 99, which is a tiny new Resurgence battleground, but then out of nowhere, it was confirmed that to commemorate Warzone’s fifth anniversary, Verdansk would be returning.
“This spring, we’ll be celebrating an incredible five years of Warzone, and on behalf of all of us that work to bring the Warzone experience to life each day, thank you for playing,” says CoD Next host and senior director of Call of Duty studio communications Stephanie Snowden. “It only feels right that to celebrate this milestone, we gotta go back to our roots.”
Snowden then officially confirms that Verdansk will return to Warzone in Spring 2025.
The original version of the battle royale, which is no longer playable, launched on March 10, 2020, so that is roughly when you can expect it to arrive next year. Looking at the recent cadence of Call of Duty seasons, this time of year should line up with Season 2 of the Black Ops 6 era.
While nostalgia of course plays a part in this, Verdansk is still revered by most Call of Duty players and considered Warzone’s best large-scale battle royale map ever. Successors like Caldera, Al Mazrah, and most recently Urzikstan have been strong, but have failed to rack up the same levels of praise and admiration. Verdansk’s return will undoubtedly be a huge moment for the game, similar to how Fortnite enjoyed record player counts when it brought back its original Chapter 1 map last year.
So, while you’ll have to settle with Urzikstan and Area 99 for now, your dreams of a Verdansk revival will come true in just a matter of months. If you’ve fallen out of love with Warzone recently, why not try some of our other favorite FPS games and free PC games instead.
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