Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dev explains why two maps were quietly removed last week

Modern Warfare Alex — (Image credit: Activision)

Update: Infinity Ward has released a statement explaining why two maps were quietly removed from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare next week. According to a Tweet, Drainage and Al-Raab Airbase were "temporarily removed" as they weren't "quite ready and need a bit more love before returning." Infinity Ward promised to update players on when the two maps, which are available in private matches, will return.

As we previously reported, the two maps were removed last week with nary a whisper from Infinity Ward, leaving players to wonder what happened. The third map, Killhouse, was not removed. Now we know the reasoning behind the removal of the two maps, but there's no clear timeline for when they'll return. We'll update you accordingly as soon as we hear about an approximate date for the return of Drainage and Al-Raab Airbase.

We recently released two new maps to Modern Warfare, ‘Drainage’ and ‘Al-Raab Airbase’ which were available in private match. We temporarily removed them as they aren’t quite ready and need a bit more love before returning. We’ll update soon on when they’ll be back!April 12, 2021

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare received three brand new maps out of nowhere last week, but now two of those appear to have been quietly pulled from the game.

Last week, Killhouse, Al-Raab Airbase, and Drainage were all added to 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, after the game had stopped receiving updates for at least a few months. Now, as you can see courtesy of the tweet just below, Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage have both been pulled from Modern Warfare, and are now nowhere to be found in the game.

Infinity Ward appears to have removed Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage MP maps from Modern Warfare quietly. The two maps were added to play in Private Matches last week. Both are no longer on the list for players. Killhouse is still available.April 7, 2021

There's been no sign from developer Infinity Ward or Activision as to why the two multiplayer maps have exited Modern Warfare. While Killhouse has been featured in it's own 24/7 playlist, the other two maps weren't available outside of private matches.

It's a mysterious situation for sure, and we've ultimately got very little to go on. Infinity Ward never released any public acknowledgement of the three maps last week, and they haven't commented on the matter this week, as two of the three maps exit the game.

In other Modern Warfare-related news, it's been claimed that the unannounced Call of Duty 2021 will be returning to IW8, the engine that both Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone operate on. After 2020's Black Ops Cold War used an in-house Treyarch-developed engine, the upcoming game appears to be making a return to the previous engine. So far, rumors have penned Call of Duty 2021 to be returning to World War Two, and developed by Sledgehammer Games, although nothing has been confirmed as of right now.