It appears that the Call of Duty franchise is returning to Steam with the upcoming release of Modern Warfare 2 after a dormant period of nearly five years.
Earlier today, a banner featuring Simon “Ghost” Riley from the official Modern Warfare 2 cover art (via Reddit) was discovered on Steam. The artwork was seemingly intended to direct players to “explore the full franchise” on Steam and has since then been removed by publisher Activision.
Seeing the fan-favorite skull-faced British special forces operator surface on Steam has everyone convinced that Modern Warfare 2 will mark the return of the Call of Duty franchise on the Valve-run digital marketplace. That means the new Warzone 2 should be making its way to Steam as well.
Call of Duty: WWII was the last installment to release on Steam back in November 2017. The long-running franchise has since then been receiving new installments exclusively through the Battle.net launcher.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a direct sequel to the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, will release on October 28, 2022, for all major platforms.
The new Call of Duty game has been reported to feature a new DMZ mode where players will have access to a marketplace to purchase and sell cosmetic items such as weapon and character skins, blueprints, and more.
Modern Warfare 2 will be integrated with Warzone 2 and all items unlocked in DMZ can be carried forward into Warzone 2. Furthermore, DMZ is said to feature small cut-off portions of the new Warzone 2 map.
Activision remains to give Warzone 2 a release date. The new standalone successor has only been slated for a late 2022 release. Whether that will take place before or after Modern Warfare 2 remains to be seen.
Ghost will not be the only familiar operator in Modern Warfare 2. You can also expect the return of Captain John Price, John “Soap” MacTavish, Kyle “Gaz” Garrick as well as a new Mexican special forces colonel named Alejandro Vargas.
