Infinity Ward brings back Bounty contracts in `Call of Duty: Warzone`

Following backlash from some of its most prominent players, Call of Duty: Warzone developer Infinity Ward has reversed a controversial tweak it made earlier this week to Call of Duty: Warzone. On Wednesday, the studio added a system called Most Wanted contracts to the first-person shooter. By picking one up, a player would reveal their location to every other team in the match. If they could subsequently survive for five minutes, Warzone reward the player with in-game cash and the redeployment of their teammates.

The primary issue fans had with the new feature is that it replaced bounties, one of Warzone's more popular mechanics. Worse yet, Infinity Ward made the change without telling players it planned to remove them from the game. Bounties, like most wanted contracts, are bonus objectives that you can pick up during a match. The important difference is that they mark only one opponent on your map. Successfully hunt them down, and you'll earn bonus cash with which to purchase tools like additional armor and weapons. Conversely, if your target can outlive a bounty timer, they'll get a reward.

Bounties are high-risk, high-reward strategy, but many players complained that while Bounties encouraged aggression, Most Wanted contracts had the opposite effect: You take the contract, and then you spend five minutes hiding and hauling ass. That's how some of us play battle royales anyway but hard hitters who like to mix it up saw it as a move in the wrong direction, and weren't shy about saying so.

A Warzone update released last night grants their wish: Most Wanted contracts are out, and Bounty contracts are back in. We don't really get why the game can't have both, but if it has to be one or the other, Bounties definitely appears to be the more popular choice.

The contract swap-out is the big moment here, but the update makes a few other tweaks and changes too. Courtesy of Infinity Ward, the full patch notes are below:

• Fix for Gunsmith Custom loadouts not appearing in matches
• Removing Most Wanted Contracts from Warzone and adding Bounty Contracts back
• Adjusting the timer from 10 to 15 seconds in 3v3 Cranked Gunfight
• Adjusting out of bounds timer in Infected
• Adjusting the match start timer in Infected so players can join before the Infected countdown ends.
• Fix for a bug where players could get stuck during the infil while loading into a BR match