COD MWII Warzone rebranded to just ‘Call of Duty’

Ever since the launch of the first Warzone back in 2020, Call of Duty has tied its free-to-play battle royale experience to the mainline games, with Warzone 2 similarly being attached to last year’s Modern Warfare II. in an interesting move, Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Warzone has now been rebranded with the much simpler (though potentially more confusing) name: ‘Call of Duty’.

As discovered by ResetEra user GrantDaNasty, an update to Call of Duty MWII Warzone on Steam and Battle.net has altered the name of the free-to-play experience, replacing it with the simple title of Call of Duty.

Having Warzone tied to the paid COD entries was always an odd move and not only led to some bloat in the application, but also confusion for those who never purchased the paid title, instead only opting to play Warzone.

Warzone 2 is technically the 3rd Battle Royale Call of Duty game from Activision – counter to many other live-service titles such as Apex Legends and Fortnite which have maintained their simplified names despite the games themselves going through major changes.

Activision themselves have yet to officially comment on this alteration and the mentality behind it, though it is likely due to the reasons mentioned above.

What this means exactly for COD titles moving forward is currently unknown. That said, with all future Call of Duty games set to run on the same IW Engine as Warzone, this simplification of the name could ultimately lead to Call of Duty amassing an even stronger sense of identity and consistency between titles. We will have to wait and see.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of this rebrand? Why do you think Activision made the change? Could this potentially cause additional confusion or is it good for the live-service’s longevity? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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