Infinity Ward has confirmed that Hardcore Mode is back in Call of Duty Warzone 2.0.

In a series of tweets, the studio shared these messages:

“New missions, new Exclusion Zone and difficulty tuning.

Prepare for DMZ’s Season 02 update with our deep-dive blog next week.

No HUD? No problem. Hardcore is back!

Follow Season 02’s Multiplayer updates in our studio blog later this week.”

As is discussed in our official explainer on the topic, Hardcore Mode is a popular multiplayer gameplay mode that raises the difficulty just enough for players looking for a thrill, but isn’t so frustrating that it would become unfun. In recent years, Activision have taken to relabeling the mode as Tier 1, but the mode has not changed in any way outside of the name.

Activision promised that the mode would be available last November 16, 2022, alongside the start of Season 1 on Call of Duty Warzone 2.0, but obviously that didn’t happen. With official confirmation from Infinity Ward again, hopefully they can follow through and actually deliver this mode for players.

The day before, Infinity Ward also promised more content coming with the game. More missions, exclusion zones, and changes with the difficulty are all coming alongside Hardcore Mode in Season 2.

Infinity Ward is making these announcements just as bad news has been hitting the usually evergreen Call of Duty games. As noted by CharlieIntel and confirmed in SteamCharts, an estimated 45 % of players dropped the game from its launch, and 60 % within the last thirty days. You can review the full numbers as of the date of this article below.

It isn’t quite clear yet why so many players have immediately lost interest, but the higher expectations for both a Call of Duty game and a live service game, do mean that fans were not going to stick around if fan favorite features like Hardcore Mode were not immediately available.

It’s also worth noting that Call of Duty Warzone 2.0’s best performing month on Steam was also a landmark month for the platform. They saw the largest number of concurrent players they have had yet on November 2022.

This isn’t just a problem for Infinity Ward and Activision, but it does not bode well for the industry as a whole. It may be the case that consumers are losing patience with games coming out without all the features expected of a full retail price release.

Source: Infinity Ward , CharlieIntel, SteamCharts