Although it is still in its infancy, the DMZ seems like a tree trying to grow in the shade.
The Call of Duty Extraction game mode was first introduced this time last year, and while it was originally a fantastic new concept, it failed to capture what a true looter shooter would feel like. Should and instead grew tiresome very quickly.
Now, the future of the game mode is in complete limbo, as Call of Duty has revealed how the DMZ will work going forward.
Call of Duty commits to keeping the DMZ on life support.
Ever since the announcement that Modern Warfare 3 will bring an open-world zombies experience as a third mode alongside multiplayer and campaign, the future of the DMZ has been hanging in the balance.
Ahead of the CoD Next showcase (the worldwide premiere of everything coming to MW3 and Warzone), though, Call of Duty has confirmed on social media that the DMZ will not exist.
Instead, they claim that the DMZ will continue to receive support on existing maps such as Al Mazra, Vondel, and Building 21 for the coming year.
This also suggests that the mod will not be carried over to the new Warzone map but will remain exactly the same with some new additions. This means that DMZ will remain attached to the MW2 title and will not feature in Modern Warfare 3 and beyond.
What does this mean for the long-term future of the DMZ?
Given that the first iteration of DMZ is a beta, it was always inevitable that the game mode would be a test.
From this year’s gameplay, Infinity Ward and the plethora of Call of Duty studios must have studied all the flaws in the game mode and how they can be improved in the future.
It looks like DMZ will be the Infinity Ward version of Treyarch’s Zombies, which they’ve been exploring since the undead first rose, experimenting with various survival opportunities and special operations.
In the meantime, it looks like DMZ will continue to operate until Treyarch gets two years of Zombies support, and then it’ll return bigger and better than ever for the next Modern Warfare game in 2026. Can – a long wait, but worth it if they take advantage of the time.