Where did "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" go? You know, the one with Captain Price and gunfights? That was a great game, one of the best games in CoD history, but it disappeared from Battle.net after the game was integrated with Warzone in the December "Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War Season 1" update.

It was eclipsed by Warzone.

That's right, the place where Modern Warfare used to sit in the Battle.net launcher has been completely replaced by a dedicated Warzone button. The only evidence that there is still another CoD there is the faded "MW" below the main Warzone logo.

The unprecedented sight of one game being replaced and transformed by another is a bit surreal, but not surprising. Activision is just finishing up the work it started last year, and it was clear from the instant success of Warzone's March 2020 side-mode that this would be the "main" Call of Duty. The free-to-play battle royale game draws tens of millions of players each month and is frequently updated with new weapons, modes, and cosmetics; in less than a year, it has become Activision's main service game to compete with big names like Fortnite. And now it's official.

Even before the recent rebranding, Warzone was the front and center mode of Modern Warfare's main menu. As someone who prefers Modern Warfare to Cold Warfare, this exclusion hurts a bit. I would love to level up those weapons in a game with better shooting and more maps, but Activision seems to be rather trying to force the grinding on players in the new game.

On a technical level, Warzone was already the core of Modern Warfare; in the entire Modern Warfare package, including Multiplayer, Spec Ops, and Campaign, Warzone is the only chunk that cannot be removed individually. In other words, Modern Warfare is an add-on to Warzone, not the other way around.

That's the main gist of this strange baton-pulling: you can still play Modern Warfare, but you must first launch Warzone and select the rightmost option of Campaign, Multiplayer, or Spec Ops. At least that's the way it is now; in 2021 Call of Duty may finally kick MW off the main menu altogether.

As Warzone builds on its momentum into 2021, there is no shortage of game-breaking bugs and balancing issues. An exploit that slaughters competitors with invisible helicopters was quickly patched, but this time it was discovered that it was possible to enter the camps in full gear.