Call of Duty: Warzone's new map is coming a week later than expected

Call of Duty's free-to-play battle royale offshoot, Warzone, will get a new map and mode, 30 new weapons, and "a new Gulag experience" later this month.

This is expected: Activision previously announced that Warzone would be integrated with new Call of Duty releases, and that the standalone battle royale game would get an infusion of Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War stuff on December 10. There's been a slight delay, though, and the Cold War x Warzone Season One update has been pushed back to December 16.

The imminent release of Cyberpunk 2077 could have something to do with that, or it could be that they just needed more time. Activision announced the delay and explained how the updates will be rolled out in a blog post today. 

Before the big Warzone update, Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War will be getting an update on December 8 with "a host of quality-of-life improvements," says Activision. Another Cold War update will follow on December 15, and then the December 16 Warzone update will cue the start of Black Ops – Cold War and Warzone Season One.

With the start of Season One, Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War itself will get "new multiplayer maps, new and fan-favorite 6v6 modes and playlists, the return of 2v2 Gunfight with four new maps, and a massive new Fireteam map," as well as new Zombies modes and more. Activision also said that one of those new Cold War maps is Raid, which returns from Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Regarding Warzone's new map, this is the first official confirmation that it's getting one, but it was hinted at in a previous blog post, and thanks to an official-looking image posted by @BlackOpsLeaks on Twitter, it was rumored to be Rebirth Island, a location from Call of Duty: Black Ops. That rumor was confirmed by today's announcement, because you can see the blurry words "Rebirth Island" in the image at the top of the new blog post.

In an effort to keep spirits high during the wait, Activision also announced that from 10 am PST on Saturday, December 12 until the launch of Season One, players will earn Double XP and Double Weapon XP in Cold War. There are also two free cosmetic bundles that can be claimed by logging in between December 8 and December 15.

You can find more details about Cold War x Warzone Season One on the Call of Duty blog.