Raven Software recently announced that the long-standing Warzone map Ashika Island will be removed in Season 4 of Warzone. Unsurprisingly, the player base isn't pleased with the decision and wholeheartedly believes there was a better solution.
Justm16 opened up Reddit to share the sad news that Ashika Island was set to be removed once Season 4 goes live. The comments throughout the thread consist of logical suggestions to maintain Ashika Island through a rotation or even fix the map's issues—the bad lighting, time of day, and poor visibility. Honestly, any solution works better than removing an otherwise solid piece of content.
User _TheVengeful_ summed up the sentiment nicely, saying, "What a massive L. I get not everybody liked the map, the colors, the aesthetic… it is a matter of preferences, but cutting content from the game just because of it is bad for the game and the player base. Why not keep it on rotation?" This is a completely valid argument that is restated throughout the thread. A rotation between Fortune's Keep, Vondel, Ashika Island, and Rebirth Island would give players plenty of content to keep things fresh. Apex Legends manages to utilize a rotating map pool, but for some reason, Call of Duty continues to fumble the bag.
Zealousideal_While26 has a similar take on the ordeal: "It’s a shame. Wasn’t my favorite but when you have the rotation on, it keeps the game fresh. As mentioned a thousand times, the map would also be great with a re-skin with better weather. Just a waste to completely remove."
I enjoyed Ashika Island's aesthetic and while the weather was mid and the lighting difficult to look past, I still preferred it over other variants like Vondel. The latter had very little charm to it and my reaction to the loading into the map was always a sigh. However, a game of Vondel every hour isn't the worst thing in the world and is certainly better than removing the map entirely.
Not everyone agrees, however. User Davecachia jumped into the conversation with a different view, saying, "Disagree. Make it so you can pick the map you want to play. I actively will wait out the timer when a map I don’t like is on rotation." While I respect their view, splitting the player base across four modes (solo, duos, trios, and quads), then further with four different maps isn't the solution. The Call of Duty servers will not be able to hold the stress of such an expansive game mode list, and finding a match for the average player will undoubtedly take significantly longer. All in all, the idea of having all maps be picked by anyone isn't the answer.
Regardless of whether you are someone who wishes to pick their map or wants a rotation, one thing's for sure, removing Ashika Island is another bad call by the developers. First Activision killed DMZ (the best game mode that wasn't Warzone), then there was a lack of content for Modern Warfare Zombies, and now a completely playable map is being removed forever.
That's all we have on Raven Software removing Ashika Island. If you're looking for similar Call of Duty content, then check out CoD community votes on most desired sequel and the results may surprise you here on Pro Game Guides.
