At long last, the phenomenon that is Call of Duty Warzone is on its way to mobile platforms - Activision has confirmed that it's working on a mobile version of its smash-hit battle royale shooter.
We've been dropping into its console and PC version for more than two years, so we're very intrigued by a mobile version, although details are still pretty thin on the ground right now. Here's what we know, so far.
Warzone mobile release date
First up, there's no concrete indication at all of when we can expect Warzone mobile to actually come out - in fact, the only real indicator we do have would suggest that it's still a good way off.
Activision announced the game by actually putting up a call for applications to work on it, in March 2022, seeking people to work across a whole range of departments including on the technical side of things.
We'd therefore safely assume the game is still in development, and could be at quite an early stage at that. Therefore we think a 2022 release date is pretty unlikely, even if mobile games don't take quite as long to build as AAA console titles.
It could be that we see the game in 2023, although going by other titles like Apex Legends Mobile we'll probably hear about testing phases before it gets a full release.
Warzone mobile platforms
Again, there's nothing official about what phones Warzone will work on when it gets its mobile port, but we think it's nearly guaranteed it'll be available for both iOS and Android. Activision is too smart to lock itself out of either market, after all.
Similarly, there's no way of knowing how old the hardware Warzone mobile will be able to support will be, but we'd assume that Activision will want the game to work on as many phones as physically possible, so efficient performance will be a high priority.
Warzone mobile gameplay
So far we've got no screenshots or gameplay of Warzone mobile in action, so while we can't make any entirely confident claims, there's a lot we can gather from the main game on consoles on PC.
Like that, Warzone mobile will almost certainly feature a large open map that players drop into from a plane or helicopter to open the match. From there, we'd also assume Warzone's main innovations will remain - the gulag and loadouts.
The first lets you get back into a match thanks to a second chance against a sole player in the gulag, while the other lets you access a pre-determined loadout of your favourite weaponry if you earn enough cash to buy a loadout drop or find one in-game.
These are the systems that have made Warzone such a success, so we'd be surprised if they were omitted.
Another big question will be over what map the game will use. For our money, we think it could well go back to Verdansk, the now-abandoned map from Warzone's first 18 months or so. It's a masterpiece of battle royale design, after all, and would trigger nostalgia in a lot of prospective players.
The current Caldera map on Warzone will only stick around until the end of this year, so we'd be a little surprised if the mobile version of the game tied itself into it, and with loads of foliage and geometry we also suspect it'd be harder to port to mobile.
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