My enjoyment of Call of Duty franchise, like countless other players around the globe, has been significantly influenced by the extraction-based experiences that the newer games in the franchise have experimented with. These modes, to wit the DMZ beta and Modern Warfare Zombies (MWZ), innovated on the experience so much that they rekindled my interest in Call of Duty as a whole.

I am not alone in this: DMZ enabled scores of players like me to revisit the Call of Duty franchise with renewed investment, including purchasing bundles and Battle Passes where previously I may not have. Furthermore, there remain active DMZ players today, despite new content for the mode being halted with the release of Modern Warfare III (2023).

However, the sunsetting of DMZ and the lack of announcement of any extraction mode for the upcoming Black ops 6 suggest that these greatly enjoyable and profitable experiences may not be front and centre in Activision Blizzard's priorities for upcoming Call of Duty titles - for instance, while the return of a traditional round-based Zombies mode is a welcome addition Black Ops 6, it is disappointing to see that there are no plans to include an extraction mode at this time. 

Forgetting the lessons learned from DMZ and the innovations it made on the Call of Duty formula risks what Polygon described as "the most interesting thing that Infinity Ward has done in years." In addition, according to Activision themselves, MWZ is "the most engaging third mode in Modern Warfare history". They also stated that on MWIII's release that, despite the lack of new content for DMZ, "development teams will continue to evolve these dynamic open world experiences into the future." 

We would like to hold Activision to this statement. We thus petition Activision Blizzard to continue to innovate and develop extraction-based experiences in future Call of Duty titles, using DMZ and MWZ as blueprints of success. By doing this, Activision Blizzard will not just be preserving an unforgettable experience, but also honouring the countless fans who found their love for Call of Duty reawakened through these new formats.

Please stand with us in urging Activision Blizzard to keep extraction-based experiences alive in forthcoming editions of Call of Duty.