Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's heavily leaked Season 2 gets official unveiling
And it looks like a battle royale mode is imminent.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's second season of post-launch content has, following several days of major leakage, finally been officially revealed, and its array of new maps, modes, and battle pass rewards are available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Furthermore, there are strong hints that a battle royale mode is imminent.
Modern Warfare's second season themes its additions around the fight against Al-Qatala, as it attempts to isolate the city of Verdansk using a stolen Soviet nuclear warhead. "On the brink of a global catastrophe," explains Activision, "Captain Price sends in Ghost to track down the location of the warhead and lead key Operators before it's too late."
That bit of scene-setting leads us on to the good stuff, with Season 2 promising five new maps as the weeks go by, with three of those available now.
As of today, players can get stuck into classic oil yard map Rust (the scene of Modern Warfare 2's Endgame mission), Atlas Superstore - a shopping warehouse under control of Al-Qatala forces - and the Zhokov Boneyard map, an airplane junk yard in the middle of Verdansk. Rust is available in Standard Multiplayer and Gunfight modes, Atlas Superstore in Standard Multiplayer, and Zhokov Boneyard in Ground War.
Later in the season, Activision will introduce two additional maps; there's the battle-ravaged Bazarr, a "tightly contained cross-section of the streets of Urzikstan", which will be playable in Gunfight, and the still-mysterious Standard Multiplayer map Khandor Hideout.
Mid-season also ushers in a selection of new and returning game modes; there's the limited-time Gunfight Tournament - a 32 team challenge consisting of single elimination 2v2 firefights - plus Demolition mode, in which two teams attack and destroy bomb sites. Infected Ground War sees Survivors attempting to hold off hordes of Infected, and there's NVG Reinforce, described as a nighttime blend of Domination and Search & Destroy.
Activision says additional modes will arrive as the season progresses - and there's entirely reasonable speculation that the extremely large fog-shrouded map toward the end Season 2's in-game opening cinematic (not to mention the new, suspiciously prominent main menu option labelled "CLASSIFIED") is a not-too-subtle-hint at the imminent arrival of a battle royale mode.
All of this, of course, is accompanied by a brand-new battle pass. As always, there are free and premium tracks across 100 levels, with the former unlocking the likes of the Grau 5.56 mobile assault rifle, the Striker 45, calling cards, weapon charms, and up to 300 Call of Duty points. The premium track includes Modern Warfare 2's Simon "Ghost" Riley, weapon blueprints, XP tokens, Operator skins and challenges, watches, and up to 1,300 Call of Duty Points.
You'll find a more detailed breakdown of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's second season of post-launch content in Activision's latest blog post, as well as our list of patch notes.