For the first time in Call of Duty history, everything you unlocked in last year's game will carry over to Modern Warfare 3

The last 20 years of new Call of Duty games have worked exactly the same way: you say goodbye to the last 12 months of grinding, buy the new game, and start the cycle fresh. This year's reboot of Modern Warfare 3, led by Sledgehammer Games, will be the first to break that cycle: all guns and virtually every cosmetic earned in 2022's Modern Warfare 2 will "carry forward" to the new game.

You won't have to do anything when you log in to Modern Warfare 3. All your stuff will just be there, which is pretty neat if you've spent the better part of a year grinding weapon camos, fine tuning attachment combinations, and spending hard-earned bucks on battle pass skins.

There are some caveats. As covered by an exhaustive 20-section FAQ published by Activision today, cosmetics for vehicles that won't exist in Modern Warfare 3 obviously won't carry over. "War Tracks," special songs playable in vehicle radios, won't make the cut either. The two games will be so interconnected that you can even continue to level up guns in MW2 and see that progress reflected in MW3.

While convenient, the confirmation of cross-progression is further evidence that MW3 might not have the same "new game" shine as past CoD sequels. It's weird for another Modern Warfare to be happening just a year after the last one, and even weirder that it's not led by Infinity Ward. The seamless compatibility of multiplayer suggests that MW3 could feel more like an expansion of last year's game than its own thing. That would make sense, considering the prevailing rumor last year was that Treyarch's next CoD is delayed, and the series would skip 2023.

The Call of Duty marketing train is picking up speed. A full MW3 reveal event is happening on August 17 inside Warzone, and if it's like past in-game events, will probably conclude with a trailer. A new teaser trailer also dropped today, focusing on the returning antagonist teased at the end of MW2's campaign: Makarov.