It’s fair to say Verdansk is breathing new life into Call of Duty Warzone. The Internet had declared that nostalgia-fueled Verdansk had “cooked” Activision’s five-year-old battle royale before things were turned around. Now, the Internet has declared Warzone “back.” Wasn’t Activision nuke verdansk? That doesn’t seem to matter as those who have stale players who fondly remember Warzone when they’re back on the map where the lockdown game started it all, stuck on the thick and thin game over the past five years, say Warzone is fun since it exploded into the 2020 scene and then exploded.
This basic gameplay experience was an intentional design decision of developers Raven and BeenOx. Raven’s Warzone game director Pete Actipis and BeNox creative director Etienne Pouliot both worked on a multi-studio effort to get Warzone back. In this sweeping interview with Passthecontroller, the pair discusses how they did it, the success of Verdansk’s casual mode, consider limiting operator skins to Mil-Sim for the 2020 feel, and answers important questions: Will Verdansk stay here?
Please read to find out.
Passthecontroller: I think it fits a typical profile. This is someone who played many Warzones during the lockdown and was seduced by Verdansk’s return. Was that all the points of this to get back Warzone fans wrapped in the game? And now, it’s out for a while, is it that you’re watching what’s happening?
Pete Actipis: We wanted to bring Verdansk back to Warzone for quite some time. It felt like the right timing. When we were talking about getting it back, it wasn’t just about getting the map back. It was more than that. Over the past five years, we have learned a lot and experimented a lot. One thing you can say about Warzone is constantly changing for Good or Bad. That’s what we’re trying to continue to evolve. And we listen to the players, take some shots, and sometimes they land. But when we talked about reclaiming Verdansk, it was very important to us to regain the best moments we could and to respect them.
During Covid, it was a special time in the world, it was crazy and something we all experienced individually together, but Warzone created this social experience in a very new way for Call of Duty. So we wanted to respect the best we could. I looked at all the components of what made Warzone special in 2020 and wanted to really handle it correctly.
I’ll have Etienne talk about the map side, but at least on the gameplay side, I wanted to see all the design principles and all the reasons why I added things back then, but is it still feasible? Are they still fun mechanics and loops? And if we were to get them back, we wanted to make sure we did it with the right intentions. That’s why I think it’s stuck so well. Since its launch, we are now getting great feedback from the community. They really seem to enjoy it. We are players too, so we wanted to create a 2020 love experience. Be really careful what we’re doing with the game right now. Because we’re hitting that bit of nostalgia sweet spot and people seem to enjoy it. So we’re pretty excited as players as well.
Etienne Priot: I know that games are generally much faster. For five years, Warzone has passed by really, really quickly. We have tried so many things. But every day, Verdansk was still in the discussion, in a bucket of ideas, “Oh, I’ll have to go back to that place someday.”
But it wasn’t a question of “Oh, we’re going to port it towards that new engine or that new obligation.” It really was like, “Bring the best version of Verdansk.” So to make sure you remake everything from the ground, the sky, the player visibility, audio. There are a lot of things we put a lot of energy into. And now we are looking at the results. We were playing the game and it was like, “Yeah, it feels good.”
So we were eager to give it to the players. And the answer is really successful now. So we are truly, really happy. And, as Pete said, I think that’s just the beginning. We will continue to challenge ourselves to see if we need to make some changes, improvements.
Passthecontroller: Online sentiment looks positive right now. You’ll also know that online sentiments across locations such as Reddit and social media certainly aren’t always positive about Warzone. Is that what you see in the data? Have you seen more people coming back to play Warzone?
Pete Actipis: It’s pretty successful, and I think you can say in experience, right? Look, if Reddit says something positive about Warzone, take it! It’s extraordinary and I’m excited about it. As Etienne said, we replicated Verdansk into the best possible experience. But then we didn’t stop there. This is the starting point. It’s not unusual for Warzone to progress.
We knew there were many new and lapsed players. We’ve added this casual mode and this is really working for us. We wanted players to re-experience it at their own pace or experience it for the first time in a safe way that doesn’t make them feel like they’re sweating or falling apart. We were very careful about creating this experience this season, but the data shows it is truly successful and we want to keep that momentum going in the future.
Etienne Priot: Yeah, it’s really impressive how much Call of Duty touches players that are different from different backgrounds. I’ve seen it during the pandemic and today I’ve seen it. So it’s really a privilege to work on that level of successful franchise. There’s that approach. You need as many players as possible. So there is a way to have that casual mode, improve your quality of life and have a game with a stable performance. For the rest of that chapter, and for the rest of Worsonne, how can you welcome new players and make sure you return to what you like if you were there at the time?
Passthecontroller: Casual Mode is where I’m playing now as a lapsed player who’s returned to Warzone. But I might go with sweat looking casual mode and “you can enjoy it here.” This is too easy for you when you’re playing it when someone shouldn’t be there. Do you see it internally?
Pete Actipis: The whole spirit of casual mode was to give to those who were afraid to enter into a time commitment, a game commitment, or a skill commitment with Warzone, but to do it on their terms. The good thing about this is that this is the first spin. It’s just live and we’re going to see the data, we’ll evolve it over time to make sure it retains the principles and spirit of design we wanted. So if you’re destroying the entire server and sweating, you need to come up with a plan for it. It’s still quite new now. I think it still gives players what they need now. We continue to monitor and continue to involve it. But it’s a fun mode. I can’t lie – I enjoy playing it myself and can play with people who have never played Call of Duty. It’s a bit less intimidating and I think that’s why it’s so appealing to me.
Etienne Priot: And you get the feeling of learning the tension of the game. It’s not just you’re dumped, and then you go to gulag, and that’s it finished. Internally, we have a lot of great players, and maybe we call them “devil players.” It’s just fun to have those discussions with them about the game and how they see it, and how they get closer to it. And on my side, I’m more of a downfall skill player – I used to be great, and now I’m getting worse and worse. So I think it’s really important to see how just having a conversation with those great players and being able to fine-tune that experience in a way that everyone gets something from it.
And I’m sure we have a lot of players ranked down the BR path. So I think it’s just attractive to be broader and different modes depending on your skill set.
Passthecontroller: Yeah, when the ranked start began, the sweat would probably be drawn to it and they would have had their fun. I would like to talk about Call of Duty Lore. I remember reporting on Warzone and how everything was unified and how all different brands were mashed together in the timeline. And I remember in 2021 you blew the Verdunkus out, and it was said publicly: “This will never come back.” And I believed it! So we’re just supposed to go. Or did you come up with an explanation of the story about how we came back?
Pete Actipis: I don’t want to ruin any kind of storyline bit. And it’s not confirmed or denied either way. But what I wanted to do at this moment was to pause from all sorts of timelines and so on. “Look and celebrate this moment. If we present a story, we may or may not understand whether we have to solve this or not. But again, I’m not trying to ruin anything, say or mislead anything in any direction. But there was just the launch this season. Let’s have a fun moment and get back to the nostalgic bit.
Etienne Priot: And I’m not sure if you saw some clips around it, but what I can say is that players who know the map on the map are sure they’ll definitely find some info. And then they can understand it. But at the same time, it is important to acknowledge some of Wauzon’s historic moments over the five years. Therefore, Verdansk is part of that five-year celebration.
Passthecontroller: A lot of people wonder, will Verdansk stay here? Is it something like the celebration, one-shot type thing you’re doing, or is it something the player can expect in the long term and you iterate it based on it?
Pete Actipis: We have reclaimed Verdansk for a reason. It wasn’t just about getting it back for the season and saying goodbye again. A lot of effort was put into this. So, as Verdansk is sticking for the time being, this is just the beginning of the Verdansk 2025 journey, and we’ll see how things go from there. Again, there’s no confirmation about the map strategy moving forward, but I love Verdansk. It’s a nostalgic map we loved and it’s fun to play, so we just want to continue investing in it and, at least for the time being, it’s a better experience for players to move forward.
Passthecontroller: I’ve seen players come back and unlock the Ghillie suit from Price in Modern Warfare 2. Verdansk is back. Have you seen this?
Etienne Priot: Yes, I saw it.
Passthecontroller: People are asking each other how to get it again. You may even buy back to Modern Warfare 2 or unlock the Gilly Suit.
Etienne Priot: It’s really interesting how the community is involved in the game. You could potentially place all the different operators from Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and all the different games. That’s something I really like from the game. This means that all different Battle Passes and Black Cells can be changed at each loadout and operator. And sometimes I use really old weapons that may not be meta, but I feel like I’m back. That’s the way I want to play. So I’m sure many people are enjoying it now, just using all the different content we’ve provided over all those years.
Pete Actipis: On the day of the launch I went back and opted for an old ghost costume that looked very similar to the boot preview version. I say, “Okay, I’m back too.” It’s part of the fun, choosing your operator and trying to relive the moment as you remember it.
Passthecontroller: I’ve had an old debate about whether to play aggressively in the same old place, camping on roof and snipers, or simply hiding. When you were thinking about getting your map back, did you consider tweaking it in a way that promotes a particular gameplay type or gameplay style, or do you want to recreate it as accurately as possible so that the same gameplay style in the same place happens again?
Etienne Priot: We wanted to recreate those moments, but again, we learned a lot. So, just a simple example: the visibility of players is really better now than it was back then. Maybe people remember Rose, but there were plenty of dark horns. It was an experience that many people were not attracted to. So we made some small adjustments like this and made sure it was fun for everyone.
And the other thing is that audio was really, really, really important. So make sure you understand from each corner where you are in this, where you become an enemy, and how you need to react. Again, we just need to make sure it’s the best Bardansk version we have to offer. That’s the goal and I think we’re on the right path to continue.
Pete Actipis: Also, we didn’t want much change. The map itself included “Want to play long distances and camp on the top of the stadium roof with a helicopter?” There were many possible play opportunities, and there were plenty of short and long distance opportunities. A great battle in the woods north of the quarry or southwest of the hills.
To make that happen, we went back to the core experience and made sure we could pay for those moments. So we reverted the circle back in the way it originally worked. So, allowing these wild swings of these first circles and the last circles, you end up in the first part of the game where you play in a dense area, maybe downtown, and where you have the opening, and then you end up with, “Oh, junk, I can hit the loadout again.”
We also made the vehicle more impactful, so we had to remove things like redeployment drone beacons and all the other fast travel mechanics, making the rotation a little more difficult.
They may all look like individual things, but they all become complicated together and form an experience in practice. And we were very careful. “What was the experience you really wanted to do when you brought Verdansk back?” So it started peeling off the onion saying, “Well, we have to change this, we have to change this and this and this.” And they all come together as the sum of that beat portion we were chasing.
Passthecontroller: I wanted to get insight into TTK (time to kill) and how Verdansk approached what he wanted to achieve there because he was back. It feels like it’s been shortened to me, but exactly what happened there and why did you make the changes you made?
Pete Actipis: Compared to last year’s Urjikstan’s year, it’s a faster TTK. It’s pretty comparable – I don’t know the exact numbers offhand – but what we wanted to go back to now was to make it a more casual and friendly kind. There’s also a lot more excitement like, “Oh, I have the opportunity to kill you.”
That being said, it’s not that you’re trying to remove a skill from the game. There are still many skills in this game, but it’s easy to get along with, and that’s the important difference there. And part of this not only does it deal with how the weapon handles it, but how does it deal with movements accordingly? Do you feel you can engage in combat, get beads on someone and react to how someone is moving or how they can escape the shot?
Therefore, movement and shooting are very tied to the hips. And this is also a peeled onion approach. We love TTK sitting now. We will rate it as the game progresses and see what fans think. We are constantly evolving and respond appropriately based on that. But for now, people seem to enjoy it. I have some who TTK love it… or hate it. It depends on the type of player. It’s okay to express your opinion. cool! We are trying to do what’s best for the entire community.
Passthecontroller: My first Verdansk match was on a plane and the four of us were ready to jump out. One of the players was a giant teenage mutant ninja turtle and the other was this fairy. “This is not how Warzone has returned to lockdown.” Was it in your mind, as you were thinking of rekindling that feeling exactly when some of these crazy skins weren’t that popular in the game? In fact, have you ever thought, at least at first, that it would be limited to something like Mil-Sim (military simulation) or some of the things people remember, just for a reboot? Or was it never considered to you?
Pete Actipis: We talked about everything. We really didn’t turn the stones over. But we wanted to create the best possible version of Verdansk. And part of that is understanding the reality of where we are. We’re in a black OPS for six years. So, at the end of the day, we still deal with differences between loadouts, weapons and even operators. We paid our respect and tried to repay that spirit of nostalgic experience to the best possible. But our intention was not to be a facsimile of that old experience. It was supposed to be the best version of Berdansk and Worsonne so far.
Part of this was respecting players’ purchases. As a player, I invested whatever it was, X time, money, whatever it was, and this is the person I like to play with. Well, we can also limit weapons and operators, but I know that some players may have a more stance on it, such as “I just want to play the game. I want to enjoy it in my own mode.” “I want it to be a pure mirsim.” But the spirit was to welcome it to all players.
Etienne Priot: I remember one day with my friend. “Yeah, today we all bought a different turtle and we wanted to win the four turtles. It was pretty crazy. So I think I just have those possibilities in front of the players.
Mil -Sim – One of my friends is really hardcore and he plays with only one attachment. That’s his rule. Because he feels it is cheating. He said, “No, that’s not a usable case of weapons. So I’ll use only one.” And I said, “If you want to do it, I’ll never go that path.”
So, I think that just having all these different possibilities will allow you to engage the way you want it. And then, as Pete just said, I think it’s really important to respect all the time and money you spend on the game and make sure it’s still worth it to you.
Passthecontroller: Your friend must be very good at Call of Duty if it can be obtained with just one attachment.
Etienne Priot: Yeah, from my point of view, “Hey, are you using something I’m not aware of?” But yeah, you’re a real player.
Passthecontroller: That leads me to one of the final questions I want to ask. Activision has increased communications about Warzone’s fraud and recently made changes like Crossplay. But are you looking for improvement now with Verdansk returning?
Pete Actipis: To be honest with you, it’s not our specialties, it’s the whole of cheating. I’m postponing these questions to the Ricochet team and postponing how such things have worked. Anecdotes, the game felt good. I don’t feel fooled. I think that’s even what our streamers are saying. Again, that’s not actually a data point.
Etienne Priot: And just to add, it is something that is on our minds. So we make sure that the right people are talking to the right team and make a lot of effort. Everything we see from the community is important to us too. So, yeah, we put all the energy we need to win and make sure the game is in the right state we want.
Passthecontroller: Do you have a message to the community about Warzone’s plans for 2025? What can players expect?
Pete Actipis: First of all, thank you for coming back on this Warzone journey or continuing with us. We are players too and strive to make the game as good as possible. All it takes is the launch of Verdansk, the simplification of the systems and mechanics, and the flow. We are trying to nurture the game and are extremely excited to see the roadmap move forward. I have a huge surprise that I won’t ruin it in the store today, but we want to hear the community and give feedback. We listen. We take all opinions. We have our own uniqueness and we love hearing what players think and feel. Passion is really important to us. I’m excited to continue my journey here.
Etienne Priot: Yes, totally. The first thing is to thank every player for all their love. And even the bad. I think it’s important to know both sides of the community. We are all passionate and there are many great ideas that are heading down the road. Warzone has room to continue growing and opportunities right in front of you. So I hope to reach those moments with all the different players. After that, they will stick as their memory for quite some time.
Wesley is the UK news editor at Passthecontroller. Find him on @wyp100’s Twitter. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
