Warzone 2.0 will gatekeep new DMZ content behind a £70 paywall

Call of Duty Warzone 2 DMZ update promo image — Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0 – when has a Call Of Duty update not angered half the player-base? (pic: Activision)

Aside from season 2 wiping Warzone 2.0’s DMZ progress, Call Of Duty players are upset over its Modern Warfare 2 only content.

After unveiling a brand new map called Ashika Island, for their most recent update, Activision and Infinity Ward have shared details on a second patch, due on February 15, that will deal solely with the game’s DMZ mode.

Fans were already rather irate with the mode, since season 2 will be wiping almost all DMZ progress once it goes live – forcing players who have invested a lot of time to start from scratch.

Now it’s transpired that one piece of new DMZ content will be exclusive to those who also own Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Said content is a new fourth faction called Crown, that provides its own mission types for players to complete. For whatever reason, though, it’s been decided to make the faction and its missions exclusive to Modern Warfare 2 players.

This effectively locks the faction behind a £70 paywall, which is what Modern Warfare 2 costs at full price on consoles. Although at the time of writing, it’s discounted to £52.49 on PlayStation and is £60 on Steam.

The Call Of Duty website doesn’t provide any reason for this decision, but one argument that could be made is that it’s simply to reward Modern Warfare 2 players.

If this is supposed to be an incentive to get Warzone 2.0 players to buy Modern Warfare 2, asking for upwards of £70 just for new mission types seems like a recipe for community discontent.

Unsurprisingly, fans have quickly begun arguing about whether this is more proof of Activision’s greed or a perfectly reasonable decision, since Warzone 2.0 is free-to-play anyway.

Others, meanwhile, are more upset with how the DMZ mode has been getting more attention than Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer.

Itâ€™s an additional faction, not the whole set of factions. Why shouldnâ€™t paying customers be rewarded. I donâ€™t have an issue with this at all.
— ð•ð• ð•™ð•Ÿ ð•Šð•žð•ªð•¥ð•™ (@mrlizardkingz) February 2, 2023

Makes sense to me, players who pay the premium cost for the premium games should get rewarded. These games are directly linked for better or worse, even bundles cost the same whether you play free or paid.

— GreenPatriot (@Green_Patriot1) February 2, 2023

On one hand I’m glad those of us that paid for MWII technically have something else to justify our $70.
On the other hand a f2p mode shouldn’t have locked content.

— Slimbread (@TheSlimbread) February 2, 2023

Paying $70 for DMZ while the core MP experience doesn’t have any meaningful updates sor S2. @InfinityWard that’s low.

— jomes (@jomejomes) February 3, 2023

Hey I mean they forced everyone to play DMZ to unlock a gun for multiplayer so this isn’t surprising, but it just sucks, I havent played since they added dmz basically, Im not wasting my money on Call of Duty ever again

— Sam😵‍💫 (@coolingkit) February 3, 2023

Wish they’d support the $70 game with new mp maps and modes, instead of just adding everything to the free to play game.

— Vulcan14 (@FPSKIA) February 2, 2023

Judging by an overview of season 2 on the Call Of Duty website, Modern Warfare 2 does appear to have the least amount of new additions, only receiving Hardcore mode (a series regular) and ranked play options, alongside the usual balance changes and tweaks.

Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.