Activision launches new free-to-play cross-platform Call of Duty battle royale, Warzone

Activision has revealed its new cross-platform battle royale, Warzone, is releasing free on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One later today.

Players will not need to own the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to play the new game as Activision insists “Call of Duty: Warzone is free for everyone”.

Out today, the new free-to-play experience features “signature Call of Duty combat for up to 150 players in a massive world filled with exploration and discovery” and the game includes a new training mode for players to acclimatise to Call of Duty’s mechanics.

Unlike other battle royales, Warzone includes the “Gulag” in which eliminated players will be taken as prisoners and required to “fight to the death” against another real-life player to earn the chance to return to the match. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for your squadmates to complete enough Contracts to pull you back in.

“Warzone is a massive experience, delivering an online combat arena featuring two epic modes of play for up to 150 players,” Activision said. “With the scope and scale of an experience such as this, also comes a sizeable download. New Warzone players, who do not own Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, will need approximately 80 – 101GB of hard drive space for download (will vary by platform).”

Although players participating in Nvidia’s GeForce Now beta had access to games like Overwatch and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the titles have now been removed following a “misunderstanding” between the two companies. Shortly after, Bethesda and 2K also followed suit, although Epic Games says it is continuing to “wholeheartedly supporting” the service.

“Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during the GeForce Now beta, which we took to include the free trial period for our founders’ membership,” explained a statement from Nvidia at the time. “Recognizing the misunderstanding, we removed their games from our service, with hope we can work with them to re-enable these, and more, in the future.”