Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0 won't carry over existing content or progression
Warzone 1.0 will continue as "a separate experience"
Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is coming later this year, but progress and inventories won't carry across from the existing Warzone. Instead, it'll be a fresh start and will run concurrently alongside the existing game. Infinity Ward offered a few details of the new game as part of their reveal of Modern Warfare 2 earlier this evening.
A post on the Call Of Duty site detailing Modern Warfare 2 includes this on the future of Warzone:
October 28 marks a new beginning for Call of Duty, starting with the release of Modern Warfare II. Soon after, a wholly new Warzone will launch as an extension of the Modern Warfare II universe. With it comes new technology, new features, and new gameplay that work seamlessly together. Throughout, we have taken a wide range of community feedback to heart. In order to fully deliver this state-of-the-art experience, Warzone 2.0 will feature new Modern Warfare II content and systems with brand-new progression and inventories. Today’s Warzone will continue as a separate experience that will include a continuation of player progression and inventories within that Warzone experience. We can’t wait to share more details soon.
A fresh start isn't entirely a bad thing, as our Ed has found himself overwhelmed by the constant churn of content (supporters only) in Warzone currently. It does mean players have to start earning those weapon unlocks all over again, however - or, if they paid money for items, they may find they have to buy equivalents a second time. Plus, if the existing Warzone continues as a separate, supported experience as the post above states, it risks splitting the community across two live games.
Much of Infinity Ward's mention of Warzone in the post concerns the game's technology, both its use of the same engine as Modern Warfare 2 (and 2019's Modern Warfare 1) and the day-one inclusion of Ricochet Anti-Cheat. That's because Warzone's initial enormous popularity has been seriously hampered by performance and cheating issues. Ricochet was eventually integrated into Warzone alongside the release of Call Of Duty: Vanguard in late 2021.
Part of tonight's announcement was that Call Of Duty "is coming back to Steam on PC starting with Modern Warfare II." While that's not confirmation that Warzone 2.0 will be available on Steam, it's a strong suggestion. Recent Call Of Duty games have been exclusive to Activision Blizzard's own Battle.net platform.
Warzone is being developed by Infinity Ward alongside Raven Software. Two weeks ago, Raven Software QA staff voted in favour of uninionising after several attempts by Activision to stop that happening. Raven Software QA staff began to organise after experiencing layoffs after the release of major Warzone updates late last year.