Modern Warfare 2 has arrived and outside of a handful of technical issues, it has had a relatively smooth launch. Some important features are missing but these issues should be fixable with a patch or two. However, what continues to confuse players is that the Museum map from the beta is nowhere to be seen in Modern Warfare 2.
In the open beta that ran around a month ago, there were six maps for players to try out. Five of these are present in the full launch as expected, but not all of them made the cut. Last Friday, we noticed the Valderas Museum was not playable in Modern Warfare 2. It isn’t in public matches, and it can’t be selected in private matches either.
An official reason as to why Valderas Museum was cut still hasn’t been given. However, we have an idea based on how some of the other maps in Modern Warfare 2 have been handled. The reason that the Museum map isn’t in Modern Warfare 2 at launch is likely a legal problem. More specifically, a copyright issue between Activision and the Getty Museum.
The Getty Museum is located in Los Angeles, and it hosts a variety of pre-20th-century European art. It was also the inspiration for the Valderas Museum map, with the Call of Duty map sharing several similarities. These similarities may have prompted the Getty Museum to take legal action. It’s thought that Activision encountered a similar issue with Crown Raceway (formally known as the Grand Prix) due to it being too similar to the Marina Bay Grand Prix circuit in Singapore.
Small map pool
With the Museum map removed from Modern Warfare 2, the map pool isn’t ideal. While Crown Raceway seems to be back in the game, if the Museum map continues to be unplayable, there will only be 10 6v6 maps left. For comparison, most Call of Duty games have around 12 maps at launch, with the likes of Vanguard having as many as 16.
NEWS: The ‘Museum’ map may not be returning to #ModernWarfareII.
Activision wasn’t given permission to use the IRL location known as ‘Getty Museum’, so they took legal action.
It’s a shame because it was a pretty good map.
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— Modern Warfare III Informer (@MW3CODInformer) October 30, 2022
