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Infinity Ward pulls two of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare maps surprise-added to the game last week without explanation

Deserters.

In another twist in the 'has Activision abandoned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?' saga, Infinity Ward has now pulled two of the new maps surprise-added to the game last week.

Last week, we reported how 2019's Modern Warfare unexpectedly received three new maps, four months after Activision left the game behind to focus on Black Ops Cold War and Warzone.

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The maps, added to the game as part of the mammoth mid-season two update, are Killhouse, Al-Raab Airbase (6v6) and Drainage (Gunfight).

Killhouse was added to Multiplayer alongside the new Killhouse 24/7 playlist, which remains available today.

However, Al-Raab Airbase (6v6) and Drainage (Gunfight), were only ever available to play in private matches. Now, they're gone from the list of maps you can select in custom games.

This bizarre development has come without any explanation from either Activision or Infinity Ward, although perhaps that's unsurprising since neither company acknowledged the arrival of the maps in the first place. The latest tweet from the developer is dated 8th March, although there have been a couple of retweets since then.

In December, Modern Warfare's season six came to an end with no sign of a season seven. Modern Warfare launched on 25th October 2019. Since then, it's seen the launch of free-to-play battle royale Warzone, Treyarch and Raven's Black Ops Cold War, and six seasons' worth of new content and battle passes.

It was thought dead, but last week's surprise news suggested Modern Warfare had not been entirely forgotten.

Fans had hoped Captain John "Soap" MacTavish would be added as a new operator to the game, since he's mentioned in Modern Warfare and heard in Warzone, but so far he's nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he'll be added as part of Warzone's upcoming nuke event.

Meanwhile, Activision seemingly accidentally released a new bundle for Modern Warfare that includes a skin for a so-far unreleased operator called Sparks, and a skin for the un-released Sykov pistol, suggesting both are on their way to Warzone soon. The bundle was quickly pulled from the store.

The Sykov pistol, currently only available to play Modern Warfare via Survival mode (the mode that was, controversially, a timed PlayStation-exclusive upon the launch of Infinity Ward's shooter), was discovered in Warzone in February via a weapon blueprint.