When the Modern Warfare beta was rolling out last week, Russia was the only country in the world where players were prevented from getting access.
The game and the beta were both removed from the PlayStation Store. There were also reports that Sony had cancelled all Russian pre-orders and was refunding anyone who had purchased a digital copy. Modern Warfare was never getting a retail release in Russia to begin with, making it a complete Call of Duty blackout in the country.
Nobody had any solid answers to the whole fiasco. Sony and Activision were both mum about it. The community, though, crafted two possible theories. Modern Warfare had either been banned in Russia because of excessive violence or that Infinity Ward had placed an airport-like mission from Modern Warfare 2.
The correct answer was apparently Russia itself. Modern Warfare features a map called Operation: Gun Runner that’s set in a fictional Russian city of Tavorsk — a little word play on the real city of Tverskoy. The ongoing beta client has now renamed that map to replace Russia with a fictional country called Kastovia. The change is global and you can see it for yourself on the map’s loading screen.
Activision is yet to make an official statement but the removal of Russia was most probably done in a bid to avert the ban. The coming days will confirm if Modern Warfare is finally granted passage into the country.
Elsewhere, the beta has entered its second week. The coming weekend will allow players to try out the new installment on PlayStation 4 as well as Xbox One and PC. You can confirm the schedule from here. Unfortunately, it seems too late for Russia to be part of the run.
Modern Warfare is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25, 2019. Hopefully, Russia will be included.
