"Call of Duty: Warzone" Is Here and Free and All You Need Is 101GB of Space

Here’s all you need to know to download and play.

Call of Duty has entered the battle royale arena.

Blizzard have officially dropped their free multiplayer map, titled Warzone, marking their biggest attempt to capitalise on the Fortnite mania that has swept the games community of late.

Read More:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Is Amazing, But Does It Gamify War Crimes?

Though CoD tried something similar with their Blackout mode following 2018’s Black Ops 4, they still charged for the add-on. This time, by offering a free download, they're showing that they mean, umm, y’know, war.

Where’s it set?

Warzone takes place in Modern Warfare’s desert of Verdansk, which is replete with beautiful, towering pine trees, and people trying to murder you viciously. (Unlike Fortnite, Warzone is a slightly more brutal affair.)

What are the modes?

The main one is Battle Royale, which allows up to 150 players in squads of trios. It begins with you dropping onto a map and hoarding gear, before you start to kill the other players as poisonous gas encroaches on your area. (Sound familiar?) Last trio standing wins.

In a neat twist, when you first die, you are captured as a "Prisoner of Warzone" and sent to a Gulag where you’ll fight for "redeployment" against one other fallen player. The victor gets returned to the map. The loser… says farewell.

There is also Plunder mode, which is all about collecting the most "in-match Cash" while escaping from the combat zone. The goal here is to simply get. that. money.

What do I need to download it?

Well, either a PS4, Xbox or PC. If you already shelled out for 2019’s Modern Warfare, you’ll only need to download the latest update, which’ll take about 20GB of data (provided you’ve been keeping up with all the patches since Warfare’s release last year; otherwise, make it 80GB).

If you haven’t got Modern Warfare, don’t sweat it. You can still download Warzone for free, but it’ll cost you up to 101GB in space on your console or device. You can either download it here or via Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher.

If you’re concerned that your slow-as internet will take approximately nine weeks to download this entire run-and-gun beast, take heart that it’s segmented, so you only need to get past the first 20GB to start playing Gunfight mode (which is a 2 v 2 mode with no respawning that debuted in Warfare) while you wait for the rest.

And are you sure it’s free?

As of this writing, it’s definitely free to download and play on PC. You won’t need a paid subscription to play.

As of this writing, it’s definitely free to download and play on PS4. You won’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription either.

As of this writing, it’s definitely free to download but not free to play on Xbox One. You need a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Otherwise, if you’re deadset on giving the game your money, you can buy a Battle Pass for additional CP, blueprints, skins and so on. But as with any "freemium" games, be careful with how much you pour into it, as sometimes players can find themselves surprised by how much they spent on a so-called freebie.

Now go out there and get some.

Header Image: Activision