Call of Duty’s developers have made a small preview video explaining how they rebuilt Verdansk.
Verdansk is a multiplayer map with a legacy dating back to the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It was the launch map in Call of Duty Warzone back in 2020. However, since it got phased out of rotation, it hadn’t been slated to return until now.
Activision’s preview video shares generous previews of how the city will look when it returns to Call of Duty Warzone next month, but they didn’t really go in depth on how they made these upgrades. They did credit the developers at Beenox, Raven Software, and High Moon Studios, at recreating the map, which was originally created by Infinity Ward, and then giving it that fresh coat of computer graphics paint.
Based on how it was described, at least, the highly improved graphical presentation is substantial enough that it could change the way the game is played. We do assume this means that beyond the immersive elements they already use to build a competitive multiplayer shooter, that better lighting and visuals could improve how quickly players recognize each other in-game, and perform that much better accordingly.
As best as we can tell, they used new technology to bring new textures, such as in grass and trees, and a new global lighting system. The latter of the two could be more potent, but we will note they didn’t drop the usual buzzwords like path tracing or ray reconstruction. They will likely get into those details as players prepare for the launch, particularly for PC gamers who’ll need to know how to optimize their builds.
As we noted from the start of the month, Verdansk appears to be very important for the future of Call of Duty Warzone. A rumor spread that Activision may end the game mode, if the map doesn’t bring enough players and revenue back. But we didn’t really need a rumor to recognize that Call of Duty Warzone was on shaky ground.
In the past few months, we have seen the likes of Concord, XDefiant, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and Multiversus get shut down in short order. As much as it seemed that live service games were ubiquitous and would stick around forever, it now appears that the trend is starting to dip.
Call of Duty may be one of the more enduring games in that space, gamely competing with Fortnite. But there’s no sentimentality behind this; if Call of Duty Warzone is no longer profitable, it makes more sense to shut it down than to keep trying with investments that aren’t paying off.
So we’ll see how well this turns out for Call of Duty when it comes out. In the meantime, you can watch theis preview video below.
