Call of Duty used to release on Steam. For a long time. Things changed in 2018 when Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was released. This was the first game to be exclusively available on Activision Blizzard’s launcher, Battle.net. Since then, every Call of Duty game, including 2019’s Modern Warfare, 2020’s Modern Warfare 2 Remastered and Black Ops: Cold War, and 2021’s Vanguard have been exclusively launched on Battle.net launcher.
However, things might change this year as Modern Warfare 2 artwork was spotted on Steam. A recent splash art spotted on the most popular games’ launcher showcases artwork from the upcoming game, along with a prompt to explore the full franchise. The color of the text, font used, and font size suggests that it is from Steam. A Reddit user by the name of Kalinine posted the screenshot online.
However, Steam was quick to remove this artwork. Several users spotted it at the bottom of pages, like the DLC for Black Ops 3. Now, a blank image has replaced the banner. While it was life, the artwork showcased Lt. Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley, a very known character in the Call of Duty franchise. Ghost is coming back with this year’s Modern Warfare II. Ghost has been extensively used by the developers for promoting the upcoming game, along with the official tweet confirming its existence and the recently revealed artwork reveal trailer.
Although someone might call it off as just a mistake on the management’s part, Modern Warfare II will be the first game since Microsoft’s buyout of Activision. Thus, the mishap might make sense. Microsoft has been bringing more and more of its titles into Steam in recent years. This includes Forza Horizon 4 and 5, Gears series, Halo series, and Sea of Thieves.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II releases on October 28.
