On Twitter, the Call of Duty profile offered a key update to the fans who were concerned about the ‘DMZ’ mode that was introduced with Warzone ‘2.0’ in November 2022. For a while, these fans believed that DMZ would be sunsetted with the launch of Modern Warfare 3 on November 10th. It looked as though it would be replaced by the upcoming ambitious ‘Zombies’ mode present in the game. But, according to a short statement released by Activision, that won’t be the case.

Instead, it has been confirmed that DMZ won’t be showcased at COD NEXT, which is the event that reveals the future of Call of Duty each year. It will be kept alive, though – and players will be able to continue enjoying the extraction shooter-styled experience across all the maps that it’s currently present on. There was no mention of the DMZ experience being made available on whatever Warzone map comes next, though.

Do You Like DMZ?

Image Credit: Activision

DMZ emerged in November 2022 alongside the traditional battle royale experience found in Warzone. However, it offered up something of a twist to what players both knew and loved, bringing an extraction shooter vibe to the table. In DMZ, players are charged with entering Al Mazrah (or one of the smaller maps), looting valuables, completing quests, fighting off both AI-powered enemies and human opponents, and then extracting successfully from the map.

There were some more complex mechanics written into DMZ as the months wore on, and it ultimately became a fan-favourite game mode. It allowed players to explore Al Mazrah almost at will, digging up collectables, unlocking special blueprints, and having a much more relaxed experience with their friends (and enemies).

For a while, these players who came to adore DMZ were worried that Activision was writing the mode out of future games. It was revealed a short while ago that this year’s Zombies experience is an extraction shooter itself, and that led many to believe that Activision is replacing DMZ with Zombies – but according to a tweet posted by Call of Duty, that isn’t the case.

What’s Next for DMZ?

Well, we don’t know what’s next. It’s not yet known if DMZ will be set apart as a separate mode, much like Caldera’s Warzone instance was when Al Mazrah was released. We can assume that updates will continue to flow into the mode, but at what cadence, we can’t say for sure. There’s also no knowing if those updates will be as valuable or meaningful as they are now. It could be that DMZ is maintained by a skeleton crew that patches out bugs and errors and nothing more.

What’s known for sure is that DMZ isn’t going anywhere – at least, not yet. It’s not going to compete against some of the best extraction shooters out there – like Escape From Tarkov – but it’s going to hang around long enough to remain a fan favourite mode in the Call of Duty ecosystem.

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