Warzone devs want to add map rotation – but there’s one huge problem

Nathan Warby
Warzone Verdansk and Caldera

A Warzone developer has revealed they want to give players the chance to rotate matches between Verdansk and Caldera, but one major issue is blocking the feature.

Ever since the move from Verdansk to Caldera alongside the release of CoD Vanguard, Warzone players have been hotly debating which of the two maps is superior. The original map has a special place in people’s hearts, while Caldera offers up a vastly different experience that has been divisive in the community.

Rival battle royales like Apex Legends offer map rotations so that players have an equal chance to play in whichever setting they prefer. Many feel that a similar feature would work perfectly for Warzone too.

However, despite devs confirming they’d love to add map rotations down the line, technical issues are halting their plans.

Warzone Verdansk

Speaking in a Q&A on March 23, Warzone Creative Lead Josh Bridges told former CoD pro turned content creator Tyler ‘TeeP’ Polchow that players aren’t the only ones that are dying to see map rotation.

“We want that, we all want that,” Bridges said on the Twitch stream. “There’s a technical problem.”

“The install and reinstall sizes are f*****g crazy. It’s insane,” he continued. “If we pulled out Caldera and said, ‘ok, we’re gonna drop in Verdansk,’ this could essentially be redownloading the size of Warzone.”

The CoD royale already boasts a massive file size, so it’s no surprise that the team want to avoid forcing players to install huge updates as much as possible.

Bridges went on to mention that Warzone has “lost players” every time they have pushed a large update out in recent months, due to players not wanting to sit through the long download times.

Later on in the stream, the Creative Lead teased that work is underway on reducing the file size with the aim of adding map rotation one day.

“That’s where we have been putting a lot more effort into,” Bridges said. “How do we sort that on a technical level so we can have that rotation? We’ve been really looking at it.”

While he refused to give the community a timeframe as to how long the feature will take to implement, he did hint that more information will be revealed “soon.”


For more Warzone, check out the patch notes for Season 2 Reloaded, as well as every weapon nerf and buff it introduced.

Image credits: Activision