Concept image btw ^^
My theory as to why it never released, and what Activision decided to do with it👇
Activision wouldn’t want to sabotage or pull players away from their mainline game.
They were happy to release Modern Warfare Remastered because they’d chosen to bundle it with Infinite Warfare. This meant that Infinite Warfare would have increased sales, a larger player-base to generate post-launch revenue from, and if not… they could generate that through Modern Warfare Remastered instead.
MW2 Remastered was finished in 2018, and I think Activision decided to hold on to it in case of a disastrous situation in which an annual COD game wouldn’t be able to be released.
Cold War’s development was very shaky, but after Activision were assured that the game would in fact be finished in time to launch as COD2020, they decided to make a quick buck on releasing the Campaign individually, continuing to hold on to the MP portion of the remaster.
Vanguard’s development was also shaky, and I’m sure MW2 MP Remastered was sat there being considered. But ultimately, the game was also finished just in time to release as COD2021.
Eventually, Activision decided they wanted assets of the game ported over to IW9 and used as Year 2 content for MW2 (2022), which had initial plans to be the first ever 2 year COD game.
Those plans for MW2 (2022) Year 2 were changed in favour of making the Year 2 expansion it’s own mainline game… MW3 (2023).
So MW3 (2023) released with 16 MW2 (2009) maps and newer takes on a bunch of its weapons, attachments etc because… They’re refined/re-purposed assets from that MW2 (2009) MP Remaster that never released.
…Thoughts?🙂