After starving them for years, Modern Warfare 3 is finally giving Zombies fans a reason to return

Of all the leaks that lead up to the reveal of Modern Warfare 3, none of them suggested that this year's game would be the one to bring Zombies back into the series. Zombies mode has always been one of the key pillars of Call of Duty, of course, but the mode has either ben absent or so poorly implemented that you'd think Zombies was no longer a concern.

The last game to properly implement Zombies was Treyarch's Black Ops Cold War. Modern Warfare 2019 brought back Spec Ops, and while Vanguard technically had a Zombies mode, it was such a meagre offering that it would be hard to count it. Modern Warfare 2 continued down the Spec Ops path, making it the second year in a row that Zombies fans were left without their favourite mode.

But all of that is about to change, because Modern Warfare 3 is bringing back Zombies as its co-op mode. This is not only a first for the Infinity Ward-lead series, it's also going to be a massive offering in its own right. In a blog post breaking the news, Activision said this year's mode will be "the largest Zombies offering to date."

The blog post also confirmed that development on Modern Warfare 3 is lead by Sledgehammer Games, who has "worked closely" with Infinity Ward on this one. Infinity Ward has traditionally been against including Zombies in its games because of their more authentic, grounded settings. The developer actually flirted with the idea during the development of Modern Warfare 2019 but ended up scraping it.

The blog post also confirmed a couple of the other leaks floating around, though reserved getting into specifics for a later time. The Modern Warfare 3 campaign will bring back open combat missions, which were among the things I praised in my Modern Warfare 2 campaign review.

As for multiplayer, the rumoured Combat Vests, and the revamped perk system have also been confirmed. More details on everything confirmed in the post will arrive between now and the November launch.

Today, August 17 is when Modern Warfare 3 will be officially revealed as part of a Warzone event, which is likely to trigger a reveal trailer for everyone who doesn't want to jump in Warzone to view. A rumoured beta/demo will probably be confirmed, too, as will the PlayStation early access.