Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will reportedly be a standalone sequel but without any integration with the current, original battle royale game.
Taking to Twitter earlier today, known Call of Duty insider Tom Henderson stated that Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will be a brand new iteration for only PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X (and Series S) and PC. There will be no cross-generation support with previous-generation consoles and more importantly, any progression made in the original Warzone will not be carried forward into the sequel.
That means any unlocked weapons, attachments, and levels; skins and cosmetics, just about any seasonal reward, player-earned achievements and statistics, among other progression made will not be usable in Call of Duty: Warzone 2. The sequel will apparently have players starting from scratch.
Warzone 2 is literally that… Warzone 2.
Current gen and PC only… No past weapon integrations etc.
A completely new game for the better hardware.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 25, 2022
Activision Blizzard and Sony Interactive Entertainment have an agreement to see the next three Call of Duty games release for PlayStation consoles, an agreement which Microsoft will be respecting. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will be the last game in that lineup and will release somewhere in 2023 to conclude the deal.
Microsoft and Sony will have to pen a new agreement afterwards provided that the former wishes to keep making Call of Duty for PlayStation consoles. It also remains to be confirmed if Activision will continue updating the original Warzone in addition to Warzone 2 once Microsoft has completed its acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher in the coming years.
The future of Call of Duty has been a burning question ever since Activision Blizzard agreed to become a first-party Xbox studio. That gives Microsoft the opportunity to keep the franchise exclusive to Xbox consoles, but which might not be easy as analysts believe such a move “would be hard to get past [gaming] regulators.”
