A new report reveals that Call of Duty 2021 is indeed a WW2 game with campaign, multiplayer, and zombies, and free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone will apparently also be going further back in time with an all-new period map. This would be a radical shake-up for Warzone, one that could greatly eclipse the much smaller leap that took place between it and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War.
It has already been confirmed that Sledgehammer Games is developing Call of Duty 2021, but Activision is remaining mum on exactly what the Call of Duty: WWII developer is making. It's likely it'll be a few months before that information is known for certain, but Sledgehammer has been given less time for its 2021 entry than any other studio in the franchise since it joined the three-year development cycle. Whether or not this results in a lesser game remains to be seen, but it's sure to have an impact on the wider series regardless.
Now, VGC reports that Call of Duty 2021 is indeed called Call of Duty: Vangaurd (a long-rumored subtitle) and that it will include all of the key series modes. The campaign will supposedly focus on both the Pacific and European Theaters of World War II, making it sound quite similar to Treyarch's World at War. While little else is known about the core game, Warzone will get apparently get a drastic WWII makeover to complement the latest mainline game. The free-to-play game is reportedly slated to get an all-new map set in the Pacific with new vehicles, which would almost assuredly make it the largest and most ambitious map change to date.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is also not expected to be revealed at E3 2021, meaning it'll likely be shown around August, as was done with Black Ops Cold War. Although the series is obviously no stranger to the setting of WWII, it does beg the question of how much the new Call of Duty will impact Warzone. Given it's a live-service game with all manner of skins and weapon packs for sale, there are questions to be asked about how Activision will integrate modern weaponry and characters into a WWII setting, or if it should at all. Two possible avenues are for Warzone developer Raven to either treat the setting purely as set dressing or to split the game in half, potentially relegating modern/80s skins and equipment in Verdansk and make WWII weaponry Pacific map-exclusive. Neither sound like perfect solutions.
However, Warzone's Verdansk '84's poor reception does signal that a new map is in order, and it makes sense that the battle royale will continue to integrate with each annual Call of Duty release. What appears to be a canceled Warzone map also surfaced online recently, showing there was something drastically different planned for either it or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at some point, but it seems to have never come to fruition. Whether or not Call of Duty 2021's will satisfy fans' desire for substantial new Warzone content remains unclear for now.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Source: VGC