Players who’ve been enjoying the new Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) multiplayer experience have found themselves wondering for quite some time where one of the popular maps from the beta has disappeared to: The Valderas Museum.
This familiar museum map was a bright daytime setting that was a regular fixture on the game’s open beta. That said, it wasn’t even listed in the maps on the Infinity Ward thread the day of launch and hasn’t been added to the game since.
However, there’s been a new development on that matter that is worth making note of. Here’s what we know so far.
Where Is The Valderas Museum Map in MW2?
At the time of writing (January 27th, 2023) – the Valderas Museum map is still not available in Modern Warfare 2.
It’s been speculated by fans that the map may have been removed for similar reasons to the Grand Prix map’s removal during the beta.
According to fans on Reddit, it appears that map is based on a real life museum in California – the Getty Museum. However, California law prohibits depictions of violence in public places.
While Infinity Ward have deliberately tried to make some differences to ensure it’s not mistaken for the real world location – including setting it in a different country – perhaps the similarities were still a little too close for Activision’s legal teams.
It’s worth pointing out Activision hasn’t confirmed this – or even commented on its removal. However, this has already happened once before – with the Grand Prix map – which had some tweaks made and is now known as Crown Raceway.
However, other fans believe that the map may have just been taken down for gameplay reasons, as many felt it wasn’t well designed for the game. This may not be the last time Infinity Ward are in turmoil when it comes to maps as it’s becoming a trending sequence of events which isn’t entirely great.
Either way, we’ll have to wait and see if the Valderas Museum map does indeed return in the future. While we wait, be sure to stay tuned on the latest news and updates on this matter down below.
Will Valderas Museum Return To MW2?
Though there has been no word from Infinity Ward or Raven Software on the reason for its removal or its return, a recent post from CharlieIntel on Twitter might suggest that we could see the Valderas Museum Map sooner than we think.
In the Twitter post, all you see is a picture of the Valderas Museum Map with no caption or hashtags of any kind to hint when it could return or why it’s being posted.
This week, Infinity Ward did release a community blog post on the upcoming Season 2 update, but mention of the new Valderas Map was not to be found in their announcement. In addition, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, and Call of Duty have not posted anything about the Valderas Map, so it’s difficult to gage how concrete this news is and when this could all happen.
READ MORE: Infinity Ward Provide MW2 Community Update on Season 2
However, what’s interesting to make note of is that 1) Infinity Ward did announce that this week was going to be allocated towards informing the fans on a lot of new details and news pertaining to Season 2. But 2), CharlieIntel is a pretty credible Call of Duty source, who all too often have been at the forefront of big yet accurate leaks.
Again, all of this has left us with a lot more questions than answers, highlighting the fragility of this news and the uncertainty around whether the Valderas Museum Map will actually return in Season 2 or not. But with both of those two indicators above, the museum map might be back sooner than later.
We’ll update you if we hear anymore new from Activision, Infinity Ward, or Raven Software. In the meantime, check out the updated list of the Modern Warfare 2 maps here.
