Considering it still remains one of the most popular options for battle royale at the moment,Call of Duty: Warzonecontinues to thrive. Even during the absence ofCall of Dutynews or announcements this summer, players still flocked toWarzoneto get their wins. Whether players are seasonedModern Warfareveterans, or they’re simply jumping into the battle royale for the first time,Warzone’s seen great success from both camps. Even withCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Waron the horizon,Warzoneis still a very popular option for battle royale options, and will continue to thrive alongside 2020’sCall of Dutyentry.
A lingering question on the minds ofWarzonefans as soon asCall of Duty:Black Ops Cold Warwas announced was what would happen toWarzone? WouldBlack Ops Cold Warhave its own version of a battle royale? Activision had consistently mentioned thatWarzone,Modern Warfare, andBlack Ops Cold Warwould all integrate in some fashion. Now, the game’s publisher has confirmed how integration between the three games functions, and luckily it’s pretty painless for new and veteran players. However, there could be some potential points of issue in the future now that all of these games are interconnected, but minor points to be fair.
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A Unified Warzone Experience For Call of Duty Fans
For returning players,the integration ofWarzoneandCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warwill be simple and relatively hands-off. Starting at the game’s launch on November 13, players will start to see content fromBlack Ops Cold Wartrickle into theWarzoneexperience over time:Black Ops Cold Warwill have a sort-of mini battle pass “Pre-Season” at launch, but on December 10, Season One will integrate all experience progression from all three games into one unified battle pass. This will effectively “reset” a player’s Military Rank on December 10, though it’s important to note that all unlocks (weapons, attachments, equipment, etc.) will not reset.
Basically, this means thatBlack Ops Cold Warwill have its own isolated progression for a few weeks while launch players acquire unlocks and more. Then, on December 10, the current “Enlisted Ranks” system will be replaced by Military Rank progression, which will have synced progress betweenWarzone,Modern Warfare, andBlack Ops Cold War.Warzonewill not remove content fromModern Warfare, and willadd content fromBlack Ops Cold Warover time.
That means classes and weapons will have specific designations for whichCall of Dutygame they originate from, though obviously that meansBlack Ops Cold WarandModern Warfarewon’t share weapons, onlyWarzonewill. It’s unclear how the organization will function, which could be a bit confusing forModern Warfareveterans, who’s classes carried over between both games seamlessly. That’s a minor organizational hurdle that will presumably be tackled, however, there may be more pertinent issues inWarzone’s future with unified progression and weapons.
Potential Issues with Warzone’s Three-Way Integration
For one thing,WarzoneandBlack Ops Cold Warwere built on two very different gameplay engines. Putting aside any weapon or equipment balances differences, the way characters move and operate in both games will be vastly different. With weapons it’s not a huge issue, considering they’ll be compatible with both games, but things like mantling, drop-shotting and jump-shotting, and especially sliding operate very differently between both games. Sprinting and general character speed is also vastly different between both games.Warzonefans who also playBlack Ops Cold Warfrequently will have to perform some unprecedented juggling to play both games well.
That does also bring up the issue of managing balance changes between all three games. IntegratingBlack Ops Cold Warweapons intoWarzonemeans the development team will now need to coordinate and implement weapon/equipment balance revisions between three separate multiplayer experiences. That’s a huge undertaking, one that will presumably cause issues forWarzone, which has notoriously had several balance issues result from changes inModern Warfarecarrying over. Theoverpowered FAMAS underbarrel shotgun comes to mindspecifically, which means adding an entire newCall of Dutygame into the balance changes makes even more room for error.
Warzone’s Integration Should Be Painless, For Now
At the moment,Warzone’s integration between all three games should be pretty painless for players. However, time will tell if that still holds true when updates start rolling out for all three games in the future. That’s really the only big caveat here; even if there’s more room for error, balance changes will likely be as swift and comprehensive as possible.Modern WarfareandWarzonehave proven already that systemically broken weapons don’t really stick around for very long. That being said,addingBlack Ops Cold Warinto the mixcould make balance revisions slower to roll out.
Again, that’s just conjecture for now.Call of Dutyis promising a clean integration between all three systems, and there’s no reason not to believe them. TheWarzonedevelopment team is putting in a ton of effort to enable both cross progression and the usage ofbothgames' weapons in one battle royale. That’s an incredible hurdle, but also a sign of good faith that Activision doesn’t want to burn its existing fanbase with a new annual release. These are only potential issues that could occur with future balance changes, but so long as thefrequency of updates matches that ofWarzoneandModern Warfarein the past, than it won’t be a huge problem.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warreleases on July 19, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
