And with that, one of the worst-kept secrets in video games is now official. After many leaks and rumors, theModern Warfare 2remaster(dubbedCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered)is now available for download on the PlayStation 4 for $19.99. It will be released on other platforms April 30.
The remaster, developed by Beenox, offers the very same campaign that Infinity Ward produced for its 2009 blockbuster, now equipped with a fresh, highly-detailed coat of paint. And in case its title didn’t make it obvious enough already, this is just the single-player portion of the original game, which takes around five hours to beat. There’s no competitive multiplayer or Specs Ops mode to be found here.
Instead, the multiplayer focus will be kept in Activision’s latestCall of Dutyreleases,Modern Warfare (2019)and the free-to-playWarzone.As datamining revealed a few days ago,Modern Warfare’sthird season will see the additions of classic maps Backlot from the originalModern Warfareand Village from 2011’sModern Warfare 3.
An Activision Games Blog postthat went up following the remaster’s announcement addressed the decision to leave outModern Warfare 2’smultiplayer.
Read the post:
“We’ve played iconicModern Warfareseries maps of past returning in the newModern Warfare, including classic maps like Rust, Shipment, Crash and Vacant. Plus, inWarzonewe’ve also experienced classic Modern Warfare series locations like Gulag and Boneyard in new ways.
Rather than release a separate, multiplayer experience as a standalone pack, Activision and Infinity Ward are looking to bring more classic map experiences to new life within theModern Warfareuniverse as it continues to grow and build over time.”
Players who purchase the campaign remaster will receive the “Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle” to use acrossModern Warfare (2019)andWarzone,which will offer a package of weapons, skins, and emotes based on one of the series' fan-favorite characters.
After the originalModern Warfareredefined first-person shooters in 2007, Infinity Ward was in the unenviable position of having to follow that up, but more than managed to do so.
Heading into its November 2009 launch,Modern Warfare 2wasn’t just the most highly-anticipated title in gaming but in all of entertainment. The game received glowing praise across the board andexceeded $1 billion in saleswithin its first three months on the market, surpassing its predecessor and cementing the still ongoing trend of the newCall of Dutyrelease selling gangbusters every year.
Millions of hours were spent in its multiplayer, and its campaign was home to some of the most famous andhighly controversialmoments across the entire franchise.
After the firstModern Warfarereceived the remaster treatment in 2016, first packaged in with special editions ofInfinite Warfareand then eventually sold as its own standalone title, it was natural to assume thatModern Warfare 2was next in line.
Rumors popped up here and there over the past couple of years, but really picked up steam in the last month. It started with ratings listings appearing for the campaign remaster inEuropeand thenSouth Korea,followed bydatamining ofModern Warfare (2019)that revealed, among a list of things, the remaster’s cover art.
Finally,a leaked listing appeared Mondayon the German PlayStation Store, whichEurogamer later verified to be accurate, that gave everyone on the lookout a heads up that the remaster was releasing today, March 31. The listing offered an (unintentional) early look into some of the campaign’s visual upgrades, and because it’s the internet, early access to the remaster itself.
