Warzone Mobile debuts March 21 with Verdansk, Rebirth Island and multiplayer maps

Activision announced that Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will launch worldwide on March 21 with the popular Verdansk and Rebirth Island battle royale maps.

After years of development at four Activision studios, the game will debut on iOS and Android at the same time and it will offer cross-progression with the PC and console versions. More than 50 million people have already pre-registered for the game, which was first announced 19 months ago.

Now you can jump into a battle royale into maps with 120 players in Verdansk and 48 players in Rebirth Island wherever you go on the road. This is a big release, with the potential to bring a lot more players into the free-to-play Warzone ecosystem.

“It’s a new era for Call of Duty. We’ve always wanted to connect and unite the community,” said Chris Plummer, co-studio head for Warzone Mobile, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We have offerings that are very strong on all platforms. This is the first time we’ve been able to complete the circle with our mobile audience around the world. It’s been a long time coming.”

It’s also an opportunity for Activision, a division of Activision Blizzard — which Microsoft bought for $68.7 billion — to bring back more of the revenues for Call of Duty back inside the company. Call of Duty: Mobile has more than 500 million registered users, but it was made by external development studio TiMi Studio Group, which is owned by China’s Tencent. Call of Duty: Mobile will still be available, but the Warzone Mobile game is a test for the largely American team to execute well in mobile.

You will be able to play Call of Duty battle royale and multiplayer modes while you level up weapons and the Battle Pass with shared progress across Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Since you sign in on your Activision account, you can take your friends with you. You can play either with a touchscreen or you can plug in a game controller if you really want to slaughter other mobile players.

The Verdansk map was the initial map that Activision launched when it debuted Call of Duty: Warzone on the console and PC in March 2020 just as the pandemic lockdowns began. The game exploded in popularity as it was a way for gamers (like me) to talk to each other while we couldn’t go out. The quality of the Verdansk map and the battle royale experience explained the enormous popularity of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the premium game that was easy to upgrade to from the free-to-play Warzone client.

Warzone Mobile goes worldwide on March 21.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will be a free-to-play game as well, and it will feature popular multiplayer maps like Shipment, Shoot House, and Scrapyard — some of the best fast-action maps in Call of Duty history.

You can deploy across a suite of classic modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed and Search & Destroy, including Hardcore variants.

Throughout the last year, Warzone Mobile has been in a limited release where developers were gathering feedback, fixing bugs, and continually optimizing the game. That time has proven invaluable, as the teamed added with dozens of major updates, fixed thousands of bugs, and provided new content and features.

The game has shared progression where you can level up weapons, XP and more with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone — and then use them in Warzone Mobile or vice versa. Plummer said the goal is to unit players from across the Call of Duty franchise together. Sadly, there’s no announcement about Zombies mode, which seems more popular than ever with MW3.

Pre-Registration news and rewards

Landing in Warzone Mobile’s hot LZ.

At Call of Duty Next, Activision shared that 45 million players had pre-registered and that we were releasing the Battle Royale map Rebirth Island at worldwide launch. Now the number has topped 50 million pre-registrations.

For those that haven’t yet, players who pre-register for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will unlock the rewards for the launch including The Ghost “Condemned” Operator Skin, the M4 Archfiend and X12 Prince of Hell weapon blueprints, the Foes Flame Vinyl and the Dark Familiar emblem.

“If you’re new to the franchise, you’re getting an authentic Call of Duty experience powered by Call of Duty tech and everything that comes with it for the first time on mobile,” Plummer said. “It has a very unique feel to it. I know you play Call of Duty. When you put the device in your hands, it’s an authentic experience.”

Level up across console, PC and mobile

Landing in Verdansk in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

You’ll be able to level up your weapons and XP no matter where you are. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile supports shared progression with the console and PC versions of Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare III.

You log in using your Activision ID, and most content acquired in Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone is seamlessly transferred and becomes continuously available between your games.

Shared features across platforms include your player level. Your player XP earned on Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile transfers seamlessly over to Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare III and vice versa, so that your player level (and Prestige rank) remains the same regardless of platform.

Leveling up weapons to earn new camos and attachments is a core part of the Call of Duty experience. With shared weapon level progression, you can keep grinding away at weapon XP both at home and on the go.

Battle pass and bundles

The airplane graveyard in Verdansk in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile offers shared battle pass progress with Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone on both console and PC. This allows you to maximize your playtime to move through the tiers in more ways, and with more efficiency than ever before.

You can access your battle pass unlocks across platforms, including Operator Skins, Weapon Blueprints, Calling Cards, Emblems, Weapon Charms, and more. Content from the BlackCell Battle Pass offering will also be accessible within Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

The bundles you purchase and own already on Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare III, sans a small number of exclusive bundles, will be available for use in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and vice versa. Look for the Connected tag on bundles in the Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile in-game Store to confirm cross-inventory compatibility with Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Playing with friends

Inside the Rebirth Island prison in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

It’s easier than ever to stay connected with your squad thanks to a shared friends list, chat channels, and more across platforms.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile also includes in-match social features. You can listen in on nearby enemy comms using Proximity Chat and hear their last words via Death Chat after landing the elimination… or talk some trash if they get you first.

The game has access control and accessibility options designed for a deeply customized mobile experience, including controller support, so that you can find the perfect settings and then focus on the battles ahead.

If you want the jump button a little to the left on the touchscreen, you can do that. Or you can make your virtual joystick a few millimeters bigger. Just about every element in the controls interface can be customized to your liking, including extensive HUD adjustments, detailed controller settings, and graphical options that prioritize performance, graphics or a balanced mix.

Battle royale

The Verdansk map in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is a pretty vast space.

You can drop into the classic big map Battle Royale experience with Verdansk or opt for fast-action chaos on a slightly smaller scale courtesy of Rebirth Island. Verdansk features 120 players, which is smaller than the 150 on the console or PC. Clearly, this difference is one reason why you won’t be able to directly play on mobile against PC or console players. The other reason is that controlling the game on mobile is naturally harder than player with a mouse/keyboard or controller.

Since the destruction of Verdansk in the PC/console Warzone storyline, the debut map for Call of Duty: Warzone, players have been eager to get back to the city where it all started.

This metropolis features a multitude of areas to explore and scour for loot in an ever-shrinking battle circle. Will you drop in hot to a high-traffic point of interest like Superstore, gunning for an early advantage, or take a stealthier approach, playing at the edges of the circle collapse?

If you get killed, you can fight for a second chance in the original Verdansk Gulag, where eliminated operators battle for the privilege of redeploying to the match.

With 48 players, Rebirth Island changed the battle royale experience when first released, offering a smaller map size catering to non-stop action. On the PC and console, it has just 40 players. The map is a remake of Alcatraz Island, with a central prison complex and other buildings along the outer edges of the island.

Matches here use Resurgence rules whereby players can respawn so long as one of their teammates is still alive on the map, skipping the Gulag in favor of getting back into the action as rapidly as possible.

Multiplayer maps

Shipment multiplayer map in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

If you want to level up a new weapon fast, you can do so on the Call of Duty multiplayer maps. ? Warzone Mobile lets players experience classic Call of Duty action across several multiplayer maps and modes, including — but not limited to — Shipment, Shoot House, and Scrapyard.

You can play across a suite of classic modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed and Search & Destroy, including Hardcore variants. The game will be updated regularly over time.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is being co-developed by a multi-studio mobile organization that includes teams from Activision Shanghai Studio, Beenox, Digital Legends and Solid State Studios.

As to why Activision focused on the Warzone Mobile game itself instead of using Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group, Plummer said, “For this experience, we’re trying to connect our audience deeply using our own technology, our own backend, friends list and accounts–everything is Call of Duty on this. The only way we could do that–the technology is proprietary. Some of the secret sauce there, we want to keep it that way. The best way to do it is with the studios that make Call of Duty games and have for 20 years. We’ve augmented that, of course, with acquisitions and hiring and so forth over many years, adding mobile expertise.”