Call of Duty’s new Warzone map has been delayed… to Halo Infinite’s release day

Call of Duty’s new Warzone Pacific map, Caldera has been delayed and will now release on December 8 – the same day that rival shooter Halo Infinite is officially launched.

CoD’s social channels confirmed the one-week delay on Friday, stating that Vanguard owners will gain access to Caldera on December 8, followed by a general free-to-play launch the next day, December 9.

Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer mode received a surprise release this week in its beta form. The ‘final’ multiplayer suite, as well as Infinite’s campaign mode, will release on December 8.

Halo Infinite had more than 270,000 concurrent players on Steam on Monday following Microsoft‘s decision to release its multiplayer component early.

Microsoft has previously suggested that Halo Infinite’s release date was chosen to avoid other shooters releasing during the run up to Christmas. Battlefield 2042 was then delayed and went head-to-head with Halo Infinite’s multiplayer release this week.

Call of Duty’s latest premium instalment is seemingly off to a slow start compared to previous entries in some territories.

Sources told VGC this month that Vanguard’s UK launch was the lowest of any series entry in the modern era.

Only the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – the game that kicked off the modern era of CoD in 2007 – sold fewer copies during its opening week, sales data seen by VGC suggests.

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A factor that may have contributed to Vanguard’s performance decline is the fact that it’s arrived during a console hardware transition, with high competition from Halo Infinite and Battlefield.

Call of Duty’s hugely popular free-to-play title, Warzone, also didn’t exist before last year.