Warzone Ural Mountains: New Warzone map rumors & release date

Matt Porter
Fireteam: Dirty Bomb in Black Ops Cold War.

With Zombies running rampant over Verdansk in Season 2, rumors continue to suggest Warzone will head to Black Ops Cold War’s Ural Mountains in the future. Here’s everything we know about the possible new Warzone map.

Warzone has undoubtedly become one of the most popular Call of Duty titles ever, so it’s no surprise that players are always eager for new content to come to the game.

Warzone has passed its one-year anniversary, so players are eagerly looking forward to what’s in-store in the next season. Many now declare they are bored with Verdansk, and Rebirth Island was more of a spin-off than the full CoD Battle Royale experience.

Players driving vehicles in Black Ops Cold War's Fireteam: Dirty Bomb.

Rebirth Island isn’t for everyone, and many are still calling for a new map to be added to play battle royale besides Verdansk, with it all but confirmed that the Ural Mountain from Black Ops Cold War will fill that space.

Ural Mountains

The strongest rumors regarding a new Warzone map all revolve around Black Ops Cold War’s Fireteam: Dirty Bomb and Zombies’ Outbreak mode.

Player fighting zombies in BOCW Outbreak

Currently, there are three maps for this 40-player mode named Alpine, Sanatorium, and Ruka, which are all set in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Season 2’s Outbreak has also given us access to one more Ural Mountains location, Gololva. What makes players believe these could be used in Warzone is the fact that in the game’s code, their names start with the letters “wz.”

With the maps already bigger than regular 6v6 maps, it would make sense to bring them together to create a larger map for Warzone, while Fireteam already uses a lot of Warzone‘s mechanics anyway. Verdansk first arrived as playable locations in Ground War, Modern Warfare’s large-scale multiplayer mode.

Verdansk being nuked

With Black Ops Cold War x Warzone Season 2, Zombies arrived in Verdansk on the ship that crashed onto the shore between Port and Prison. This infection has begun to spread, with Zombies now overrunning Prison. It’s expected that Zombies will continue to spread across Verdansk until the whole area is infested with the undead.

Player fighting zombies in CoD Warzone

But what does that all mean for the Ural Mountains?

Audio files for an upcoming Warzone game mode called “Plague” were leaked. Through the announcer comms, we could hear Zombies had in fact overrun Verdansk and players were tasked with taking it back. This event, or mode, ends with Verdansk being nuked.

It’s expected that after Verdansk is wiped off the face of the earth, players will head to the Ural Mountains to continue the battle royale action.

Ural Mountains release date

Many players expected the end of Verdansk to coincide with Warzone’s one-year anniversary on March 10. By the anniversary, Zombies had not yet overrun Verdansk but it doesn’t look to be far away.

Golova map Black Ops Cold War

It was leaked that this massive event to destroy Verdansk would occur on March 11, but we now know that to be false. However, as Zombies continue to infest areas of the map, nuking of Verdansk appears to be approaching fast.

Although there are new rumors the Ural Mountains will arrive in April, there’s of course no official word for when the new map will arrive. It’s very likely that it will arrive either during Warzone Season 2 or launch with Season 3, though.

1980s revamp leaked for Warzone Season 3

A new clip was leaked that gave us our first look at the next evolution of Verdansk. This was a celebrity commercial that showcased the map getting a 1980s makeover.

Locations like Stadium, Dam, Airport, and Downtown were prominently featured in the leaked clip, and they had various changes to help them suit the new aesthetic. Activision then had the commercial taken down from all areas online.

Verdansk will get a 1980s makeover in Warzozne Season 3

This leaks makes the arrival of the Ural Mountains less likely to happen soon, but we might still see them added to the game at a later point. It’s unlikely that Verdansk will still be playable when they do arrive.

Some battle royales like PUBG have a rotation of maps that players can choose from, while others like Fortnite prefer to keep play to just one island.

Image Credits: Activision Blizzard / Treyarch