In March 2020, at the height of the battle royale popularity of games like PUBG and Fortnite, Activision launched Call of Duty: Warzone. The free-to-play shooter was an instant hit on PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms, and helped to extend the reach of the entire Call of Duty game franchise. Now that version of the game is going be retired in just a few months.
In a blog post, Activision announced that the first Call of Duty: Warzone version, which was renamed later as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, will shut down on September 21. After that date, any game progression and in-game inventories from that version will no longer be accessible. However, any purchased items will still be available to players in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and Call of Duty: Vanguard.
The blog post said the decision to shut down the first Call of Duty: Warzone was due to Activision and its dev teams wanting to move on to the current Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, which launched in November 2022 alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The post added:
Players should prepare for even more Warzone content across consoles and PC, as well as a new era of Battle Royale on the go with the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, which includes a shared Battle Pass and cross-progression. The Call of Duty team and Studios look forward to sharing more details soon.
We are still awaiting what the next major game in the franchise will be like. According to unconfirmed rumors, the next game could be another stand-alone entry in the Modern Warfare version of the series. We should get the official word on that next game sometime later in the summer of 2023, with an expected launch in the fall of this year.