Warzone 2 rumors suggest a permanent rename to just “Warzone” (Update)

Don’t get it confused with the other Warzone

It looks like Activision is done with its attempt at making Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 the official “sequel” to the beloved 2020 battle royale title. Instead, this project is seemingly dropping its sequel status in favor of a simplified and streamlined title that is quite familiar.

Set your coordinates for Vondel – a brand-new mid-sized map coming to Call of Duty #Warzone Season 04 on June 14 📍

Available for Resurgence and DMZ, at launch and Battle Royale in-season🎮 pic.twitter.com/JeUQwhjyVq

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) June 8, 2023

Activision seemingly changes Warzone 2’s name to just Warzone

With the recent announcement of Season 4 for Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, Activision revealed a hidden change. Though there hasn’t been a public comment yet, all of the official material surprisingly references the flagship Call of Duty battle royale game as just “Warzone.”

This accompanies a new franchise logo, which replaces the classic one that has been present through the last few games, including Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard. This overall marketing and brand change appears to be a sudden and quiet refresh.

While the logo isn’t too huge of a change, what is surprising is Warzone’s sudden renaming. Everything from the recent official screenshots to even tweets from Activision itself feature Warzone without the typical “2.0” nomenclature. This contrasts directly with how Activision tweeted about the battle royale game even a few weeks ago. In the past with Season 3, for instance, the publisher referred to the game with the hashtag #Warzone2.

However, this is different from the recent Season 4 tweets. The new hashtag is simply #Warzone without the 2. But the situation isn’t super clear, either. Platforms like the PlayStation Store still refer to the game as Warzone 2.0, so it is confusing overall.

We’ve reached out to Activision for official comment on the matter and will be sure to update you once we have a definitive answer.

This conflicts with the already existing Warzone

Perhaps the oddest part about this situation is that Warzone kinda already exists. When Warzone 2 was released in 2022, the original CoD battle royale game didn’t go away. Instead, it was rebranded to Warzone Caldera under Modern Warfare 2019 and has been around ever since.

This essentially means that players could now have two Warzone games that they are able to play. Whether or not this could indicate that the Caldera map and the actual original Warzone are on their way out in the near future remains to be seen.

For now, though, nothing else is different for Warzone 2 players, outside of the possible renaming. The content remains the same as before, with even more new additions coming with Season 4. Players can look forward to a new battle royale map in the form of Vondel, based seemingly on Amsterdam.

Update: Activision responds

Activision has provided a comment to Destructoid regarding the name change, but it’s extremely brief:

“Yes. Going forward it’s just Warzone.”

Still, it’s confirmation!