Modern Warfare 3 Brings Back Call of Duty’s Classic Minimap

The crowd-pleasing changes for Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer continue. After confirming the return of slide-cancelling, Activision has now teased the return of the classic minimap.

Infinity Ward divided fans by ditching the long-running classic minimap for its 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, forcing players to rely on the compass at the top of the HUD (Heads Up Display) to determine where enemy fire is coming from. Infinity Ward stuck to its guns for last year’s Modern Warfare 2 – Modern Warfare 2’s minimap only shows enemy player dots when a UAV is active, which means it does not display red dots when enemy players sprint or fire their weapons.

Explaining the decision in a blog post published in 2022 ahead of the launch of Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward said “we do not want to punish players for firing their weapons”.

“We also want players to actively search out the origin of a gunshot versus just traveling directly to where the dot is on the mini-map,” the developer continued.

Part of the negativity around Modern Warfare 2’s minimap has to do with the feeling its design helps so-called ‘casual’ Call of Duty players have a better time in multiplayer. If players can’t zero in on a red dot on the minimap for a kill, casual players potentially have more breathing room as they move around firing. Of course, in previous Call of Duty games, players who wanted to avoid popping up as a red dot on the minimap could always use a suppressor.

In any case, it seems Infinity Ward and co-developer Sledgehammer have switched things up for Modern Warfare 3. Confirmation comes from the CharlieIntel Twitter account, which published a screenshot of a text conversation with the hidden number from the recently released Modern Warfare 3 trailer.

Classic mini map confirmed for #MW3 pic.twitter.com/BgB4lAsjog

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) August 14, 2023

Modern Warfare 3’s in-game reveal event is set for this Thursday, August 17, and is sure to confirm many of the details Activision has teased so far. The game itself comes out November 10. While you wait, check out the No Russian fan theories sparked by the Modern Warfare 3 trailer.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.