Warzone devs respond to rumor about “sharks and monkeys” on new map

Theo Salaun

Call of Duty: Warzone players are excited for the new map coming with Vanguard. But some of the rumors, including one bizarre report of interactive animals on the map, have gotten so out of hand that the devs are stepping in.

Call of Duty’s developers don’t often get involved with leaks and rumors, but it seems that enough is enough. 

Numerous things have been thrown around social media regarding Vanguard, the franchise’s 2021 title, and its integration with Warzone. One such talking point has caught the developers’ eyes: a rumor about animals you can fight in the Vanguard map.

A post on Twitter (which didn’t have any concrete sources, to be fair) gained a fair amount of traction, suggesting that you could fight animals like “sharks and monkeys” for loot in the new map. Then Raven Software responded… succinctly.

The rumor stated that Warzone’s upcoming map would be “Pacific-themed” and that there would be animals like sharks and monkeys that “will drop loot once killed.” Past that, the account explained that “some animals will be predatory in nature (sharks), while others will be more passive.”

Seeing an account with over 400,000 followers spread this kind of information, Raven stepped in with a short and sweet “lmao.” Within moments, they had ratio’d the original tweet with almost double the likes and effectively shut the rumor down.

warzone bird gallardo's goonz
Ravens can be used as predators in Warzone already.

Some birds already exist in Warzone and others, like ravens and Komodo dragons, also exist but solely as finishing moves. The idea of bringing possibly predatory animals to the game is an intriguing one, which had players pretty divided.

While some mentioned how this would be a bizarre choice in regards to animal rights (imagine PETA’s inbox after people killed passive animals for loot), others focused on the predators. One user noted how annoying it would be to barely survive a gunfight only to get finished off by a random bear.

Ultimately, it seems like this “unconfirmed rumor” might not hold much weight. While the devs haven’t outright shut it down by saying “no,” laughing at it makes people feel like the leak is indeed laughable and won’t come true. Guess we’ll have to wait until November to find out.

About The Author

Théo is a former writer at Dexerto based in New York and built on competition. Formerly an editor for Bleacher Report and philosophy student at McGill, he fell in love with Overwatch and Call of Duty — leading him to focus on esports for Dex.