Warzone 2 popped up early after Modern Warfare 2's latest update, but it won't let me in

(Image credit: Activision)

Modern Warfare 2 almost let me play Warzone 2 a week early, and now I'm desperately searching for another way into Al Mazrah.

There appears to be a bug that's mistakenly throwing players across all three platforms into a game of Team Deathmatch on Al Mazrah – which isn't a map, but rather a location where a number of maps are set, and the space we'll be stalking in the refreshed battle royale come November 16. It's unclear if this was caused by a Modern Warfare 2 update or, in my case, an Xbox system update, but it's very much a thing.

I was able to see the beautiful loading screen for an Al Mazrah Battle Royale until I eventually received one of the Warzone 2 error codes – Dev Error 6144. Interestingly, from there you can just about make out the new Warzone 2.0 launcher in the background (it's very yellow), and I was given the option to open or join a Warzone 2 private match. I tried to create one and it crashed the game – go figure. You can view the video right here if you want, although (thankfully) it did not capture how audibly excited I was for about 30 seconds.

Other players on social media are reporting similar instances of limited access followed by crashes, although none have yet been able to penetrate the loading screen and actually play Warzone 2 early. If you'd like to try for yourself, here's what I'm rocking: I'm on Xbox Series X and jumped into a Quick Play playlist limited to TDM, Hardpoint, and Domination; from there, Modern Warfare 2 became the biggest battle royale tease of 2022.

As much fun as I'm having chasing Modern Warfare 2 mastery camos, I am pretty eager to see more of Warzone 2. Having spent hundreds (if not thousands, I'd wager) of hours playing Call of Duty: Warzone as my only social outlet throughout lockdown, I'm keen to see a revised iteration of Infinity Ward's battle royale.

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And, honestly, I'd have quite cheerfully explored Al Mazrah on my lonesome this afternoon – plotting out the best routes to weapon drops, strongholds, and gas stations ahead of the action actually going live next week alongside Season 01 of the Modern Warfare 2 battle pass.

Anyway, if anybody needs me, I'll be frantically rebooting my copy of Modern Warfare 2 in the vague hope that it'll give me another glimpse of Warzone 2. After all, that's gotta beat being thrown into another game of TDM on Santa Sena Border Crossing.

Having fun with the latest Call of Duty but looking for a little extra firepower? Why not check out our pick of the best Modern Warfare 2 loadouts.

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Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.