A Return to the genre’s Roots

Modern Warfare 4 2026’s multiplayer component is being pitched as a “boots-on-the-ground” with more realistic movement, hard-hitting weaponry, and a deliberate balance between speed and responsiveness designed to keep you immersed in the action. It’s a broad-strokes point to begin this feature with, sure, but it’s arguably the most important thing to consider if you’re still deciding whether this is going to be the game for you.

Movement is More Expansive and Versatile

Movement has been redesigned to minimise momentum-losing friction, while an expanded suite of manoeuvres creates unrestricted traversal opportunities. The basic idea is that you’re always in control, and your choices should feel deliberate whether you’re vaulting up a wall or hanging from a ledge. Some of the new movement mechanics include an overhauled mantle system – which we’ll explore in the next point – as well as pipe scaling, climbing jumps, hanging leans and shimmies, and a supine slide which sees you ending a slide on your back, providing an unconventional way to engage in tight spaces.

Mantling Has Been Overhauled

Instead of locking you into the transition animation, during mantling you can now steer left or right mid-mantle, pause to aim down sights, or even cancel the animation altogether to reassess your position. Further, mantles can now transition directly into a slide, while mantling momentum has been reworked to ensure there are no hard stops, allowing you to keep the pressure on your opponents. Through these changes, it seems Modern Warfare 4 wants to give you more control than ever in one of the game’s most frequently used manoeuvres.

Hipfire Bloom Has Been Removed

Looking to maximise skill-based accuracy, Modern Warfare 4 has removed hipfire bloom. Now, quite simply, shots should go where the weapon is pointed. With recoil, sway, and movement still influencing accuracy, hipfire’s removal pushes you to control your weapon rather than relying on randomised shot placement. It should change the dynamic of gunfights considerably, since the outcome of every shot is more directly tied to your input, and if you’re the sort of player who values mechanical precision, this could be one of the game’s most welcome changes.

Weapon Handling Has Been Rebuilt

Modern Warfare 4 2026 is also changing how weapons physically feel in your grip. At lower movement speeds, for instance, guns now have more pronounced physical motion, while sharp turns and direction changes affect how they settle. Weapons will also react to nearby walls, corners, and tight spaces, adjusting their position, retracting, or shifting stance in response to the environment. Tactical Sprint has been reworked to reflect stamina depletion, too, with your posture and stride changing as you become fatigued.

Visual Clarity Has Been Prioritised

Modern Warfare 4’s drive for realism isn’t coming at the cost of readability, with several changes incoming to visual clarity. Muzzle smoke, for one, now dynamically masks around your point of aim, while depth of field has been redesigned to keep your sight picture focused. These two things alone should ensure targets remain visible even during sustained fire. PC players also get an enhanced and rebalanced field-of-view system designed to maintain peripheral awareness while making sure enemies don’t appear disproportionately large or small.

Create-a-Class Integrates Operators and Killstreaks

Create-a-Class is being expanded, too. Now your loadout encompasses more than just your weapons, equipment, and Perks, with Operators and Killstreaks integrated directly into each class. What this means is that individual loadouts can be tailored towards specific roles more efficiently, matching how you want to play whether that’s with aggression, distance, or something between the two. The Create-a-Class menu layout has been fine-tuned, too, making comparisons and quick adjustments easier to execute.

There are 33 Weapons at Launch

Modern Warfare 4 is launching with 33 weapons: 24 primary weapons, eight secondaries, and one melee weapon. This should feel like a comprehensive cache already, but the game isn’t stopping there, with more than 500 standard attachments available, creating opportunities for highly specialised firepower. Together with the Create-a-Class expansions, the multiplayer offering could prove its most tactically diverse yet, although it’ll be interesting to see how Infinity Ward has balanced the sheer number of options into different combat roles.

Apex Attachments Modify Weapon Behaviour

Sitting above standard Gunsmith modifications are Apex Attachments, and these are capable of modifying weapon behaviour in significant ways. Unlocked and freely attached without consuming a slot once you’ve maxed out your weapon, these attachments can fundamentally reshape how your gun performs. Their effects could include a new tactical function – an aggressive close-range conversion or stealth-focused alteration, perhaps, or even something altogether more experimental.

Gunny Makes Weapon Building Easier

If you don’t fancy sifting through hundreds of attachments, then Gunny – short for Gunnery Sergeant – is here to help. This optional tool can automatically assemble useful weapon builds from the attachments you’ve already unlocked, with settings aimed at different roles such as close-range, balanced, or long-range combat. What’s more, your chosen Gunny build will continue to evolve as you unlock more attachments. It’s a shortcut to a capable build, sure, but you won’t need to spend hours experimenting in Gunsmith to get results.

Killstreaks Now Reward Objectives

If you’re the type of player who’d rather contribute to completing objectives than chasing kills, then Modern Warfare 4’s more accommodating Killstreaks have you covered. Smartstreaks now allow objective play to contribute towards your streak progression, and even though kills are still the system’s primary driver, you can now capture or defend objectives to work towards rewards.

Kill Block Changes its Layout

Encouraging you to adapt to ever-shifting layouts, Kill Block is a modular map which reconfigures between matches. This forces you to change routes, adjust sightlines, and find new spaces for cover. With more than 500 possible configurations, you’ll be consistently on your toes, even if some sections draw inspiration from already familiar games.

Combat Outpost Expands Ground War

Combat Outpost is a new large-scale, combined-arms experience coming to Ground War. It’s a mode which revolves around establishing Outposts, earning resources, and then using those resources to complete further objectives. These battles take place across enormous areas, with infantry and vehicles fighting beneath airborne Killstreaks.

6v6 Maps

Modern Warfare 4’s multiplayer component launches with 6v6 maps, including an old Soviet coal processing facility, a South Korean shopping district, with these spaces influenced by the locations visited in the game’s single-player campaign.

There are Two Prestige Paths

Finally, Modern Warfare 4 is giving you a choice in how you’d like to approach Prestige. The Classic route resets your level unlocks and Create-a-Class progression in exchange for rewards and milestones. Regular Prestige, however, appears more forgiving, allowing you to return to Level 1 while maintaining your existing Create-a-Class unlocks. Both paths aim to support your progression preference while rewarding your time and commitment.

Omni-movement Has Been Removed

And, one of those reversals is omni-movement. First appearing in Black Ops 6, the system lets you jump, skid, and zip along in any direction, but it’s been removed entirely in favour of what the game describes as a more grounded system. Yet, the genre’s gameplay philosophies aren’t looking to introduce friction where there was none before. Modern Warfare 4 2026’s movement is fluid, responsive, and unrestricted, all about keeping momentum as you vault over obstacles, scramble up walls, or shimmy across ledges.

DMZ is a Core Mode

Modern Warfare 3 2023 released without DMZ. The extraction-based mode debuted during 2022’s Modern Warfare 2, with MW4 2026 now placing it among its core offerings from launch. The mode follows the extraction form guide – get in, collect loot, complete objectives, get out, lest you want to keep your spoils. Its inclusion gives Modern Warfare 4 2026’s multiplayer experience a different flavour compared to MW3 2023, especially if you’re the type of player who enjoys extraction’s high-stakes loop over round-based matches.

DMZ is No Longer Free to Play

DMZ originally appeared as a free-to-play beta alongside Modern Warfare 2 2022. But now, MW4 2026’s version will not be offered as a free standalone experience, with access to the mode tied to purchasing the complete game. On the one hand, this could mean a smaller pool of players than the original DMZ. However, the audience it does attract could be more committed to investing in the mode over a longer time.

No Dedicated PvE Mode at Launch

Whereas Modern Warfare 3 2023 brought Open Combat and Cinematic Missions as a co-operative mode, Modern Warfare 4 2026 will be launching without a dedicated PvE experience. Whether the game will add something later down the line remains to be seen, and given the favourable reception of MW3 2023’s PvE modes, adding a co-operative element to DMZ could prove fruitful.

Inflation is MW4 2026’s Headline Multiplayer Mode

Modern Warfare 3 2023 introduced Cutthroat as its headline competitive mode, with three teams of three pitted against one another. Modern Warfare 4 2026’s most noteworthy new mode is Inflation, where every kill drops a cash bounty. Quite simply, the team with the most cash at the end of the round wins the match. The rules sound basic at surface level, but the emphasis here falls on staying alive to keep your collected spoils out of enemy pockets just as much as killing.

More New Modes Come to the Multiplayer Lineup

Beyond Inflation, Modern Warfare 4 2026 adds new multiplayer modes Hijack, where squads fight for control over a Data Spike, the Search and Destroy echoing Collateral, and Frontline, where you’re encouraged to seek out kills from outside your base. Meanwhile, MW3 2023’s aforementioned Cutthroat appears to be absent from MW4 2026’s lineup. So, while the upcoming game changes the multiplayer selection in meaningful ways, the fast-paced, tactical, well-received 3v3v3 matchup will be strangely absent.

Weapon Progression Is Shared Across Your Arsenal

In Modern Warfare 3 2023, unlocking an attachment for one weapon didn’t necessarily mean you could freely use it on another. Progression, instead, had to be repeated across multiple guns. MW4 2026 changes this by making weapon attachments unlockable across your arsenal. With fewer redundant unlocks, this shift should make experimenting with different weapons less of a grind, with you able to focus on your loadout rather than repeating similar unlock paths.

Apex Attachments Replace Aftermarket Parts

Modern Warfare 3 2023’s Aftermarket Parts could transform your weapons, ranging from single attachments to full-on conversion kits, augmenting your firearm’s behaviour, fire rate, and general playstyle. Modern Warfare 4 2026, instead, offers Apex Attachments, and there are a handful of progressional shifts despite sharing the same gun-altering impact. They don’t occupy a standard attachment slot, for one, while Apex Attachments also serve as the reward for completing an individual weapon’s upgrade path rather than being tied to weekly challenges.

Camo Mastery Tracks Across Three Modes

MW3 2023 offered different camouflage challenges across its various modes, meaning you’d have to work through separate objectives to earn the mastery reward. Now, in Modern Warfare 4 2026, Multiplayer, DMZ, and Warzone tie Camo Mastery into one route, with three Mastery Camos to earn in each mode for a total of nine.

Smartstreaks Change Killstreak Progression

Modern Warfare 3 2023’s Killstreaks rewarded you for chaining eliminations without dying. Modern Warfare 4 2026 echoes this structure, but chucks objective completion into the mix too. What this change gives is the opportunity for you to play the mode rather than focus exclusively on eliminations, and it could soften the higher skill demand incoming via MW4 2026’s more deliberate weapon handling and hipfire bloom removal.

Perks Are Reworked Into a Pick 3 System

In Modern Warfare 3 2023, Perks were part of a gear-based system, with Vests, Gloves, Boots, and Gear determining the bonuses available to your loadout. Modern Warfare 4 2026 reworks this approach into a simpler Pick 3 structure, where you can equip a Perk into one of three slots. Its a cleaner setup, sure, moving away from the cumbersome interconnectedness of MW3 2023’s gear system into something more straight forward.

Field Upgrades Get Their Own Slot

MW3 2023’s Vest system influenced how Field Upgrades fitted into your loadout, meaning Vest choice significantly determined your build. Now, Modern Warfare 4 2026 has given Field Upgrades their own dedicated slot, decoupled from perk-granting vests and instead sitting alongside primary, secondary, and melee slots. What this means is your operator choice does not restrict which Field Upgrade you bring to battle.

MW4 2026 Drops Carry-Forward

One of Modern Warfare 3 2023’s major selling points was its carry-forward system, which allowed players to bring content from Modern Warfare 2 2022 into the new game. Due to Modern Warfare 4 2026 changing its ecosystem, you’re simply unable to bring the previous game’s weapon progression and unlocks over in the same way. Everyone starts from scratch, then.

Last-Gen Consoles Are Left Behind

Modern Warfare 3 2023 launched across both generations of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, whereas Modern Warfare 4 2026 leaves PS4 and Xbox One behind to focus entirely on current generation hardware. Also, the game will be launching on Switch 2 for the first time, compounding a significant change in platform support. Last-gen users are locked out unless they upgrade, while Switch 2 owners are finally able to access the franchise at launch.

“We are definitely leaning into the nostalgia of playing with your friends. The Black Ops ports were huge successes. We thought they would do well; we didn’t think they would do that well. But you can see that pent-up demand of being able to get back to the good old days of playing with your friends on a Friday night and having fun. MW4 does that.”

Bahl went on to note that the PS4 and PS5 ports of the PS3/Xbox 360-era games taught Activision a lot of things that the company will go on to apply to not only potential re-releases, but also “future games”.

In the same interview, he has also revealed that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 – slated for release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 23rd – will wrap up the story threads that have been left dangling ever since the Modern Warfare series got rebooted in 2019. Along with this, Activision already set up a team to work on a brand-new sub-franchise for Call of Duty.

“I don’t want to give any spoilers, but [Modern Warfare 4] is going to be the epic conclusion of this recent series of Modern Warfare. It’s not that some characters and pieces can’t live on beyond this and be reinvented. But we’re excited by closing this chapter and launching a new one.

“Where we go with future games, we have to innovate. What we heard from the audience is they want new or better or different. The landscape is changing right under our feet. You’re seeing new games being built overnight, and you’re seeing tastes change and how people want to play.”

As for how far along this new sub-franchise is, Bahl noted that “we’ve already laid the groundwork.” However, the company isn’t quite ready to talk about it just yet, and wants to instead focus its efforts on Modern Warfare 4.

“It was not something that our community was looking for,” he said on the subject of Modern Warfare 3’s poor reception. “They wanted something fresh, and even though there were different time settings and ways to play the game with new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for.”

“So, we’ve already stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise, and we’ve already laid the groundwork. But we’re really excited about Modern Warfare 4, and that addresses some of that feedback.”

While Bahl hasn’t revealed any details about which of the Activision studios is working on this new sub-franchise, Sledgehammer Games seems to be the most probable since the studio’s last title was 2023’s Modern Warfare 3, which has given it plenty of time to work on a new game.

This announcement comes in the wake of Bahl also confirming that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will wrap up all remaining plot threads that were started with the reboot of the sub-franchise from 2019. This might hint at the possibility of characters associated with Modern Warfare, like Captain Price, showing up in the new sub-franchise. The decision to create a new sub-franchise was also made because Activision wants to move away from relying on the legacy of Modern Warfare and Black Ops.

“I don’t want to give any spoilers, but [Modern Warfare 4] is going to be the epic conclusion of this recent series of Modern Warfare. It’s not that some characters and pieces can’t live on beyond this and be reinvented. But we’re excited by closing this chapter and launching a new one.

“Where we go with future games, we have to innovate. What we heard from the audience is they want new or better or different. The landscape is changing right under our feet. You’re seeing new games being built overnight, and you’re seeing tastes change and how people want to play.”

Speaking further on the subject of Modern Warfare, Bahl also discussed how 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 was widely criticized due to it being a “quick sequel”, coming out just a year after Modern Warfare 2. “It was not something that our community was looking for. They wanted something fresh, and even though there were different time settings and ways to play the game with new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for.

“So, we’ve already stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise, and we’ve already laid the groundwork. But we’re really excited about Modern Warfare 4, and that addresses some of that feedback.”

As for what makes Sledgehammer Games the most likely studio to be working on this new project, Infinity Ward will have its hands full with post-launch support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Treyarch and Raven Software, on the other hand, developed last year’s Black Ops 7, which means that the teams might still need more time to work on whatever their new project might end up being.

In the meantime, the last Call of Duty game with Sledgehammer Games as the lead developer was 2023’s Modern Warfare 3, and since then, the studio has been working as a support developer on the two Black Ops games that followed it up. This has given the team plenty of time to at least wrap up pre-production work on the new sub-franchise, with development having likely already begun.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. For more details, here are 15 important things to know about its campaign.

That’s according to chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl, who told The Game Business, “Well, no offense to Zelda, but [GTA and COD] are the two biggest games of the year. More people coming in to the dashboards, more people taking the dust off their Xbox or PlayStation and starting to play again, and loading up that experience, is going to be more eyeballs for us overall.”

As inflammatory as that may sound, Call of Duty has proven a huge revenue generator for Activision and Xbox, even if past efforts like Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 7 were utterly deplorable. “At the end of the day, what makes Call of Duty last the test of time is the community and social experience. The idea of being able to play with your friends. When we look at our research and say, ‘What are the most exciting things about our games? Is it the combat or the gunplay?’

“It’s actually, ‘My friends were there. Or, ‘I’m able to spend time with my friends.’ We stand on our own there, where being able to play with your friends on all different platforms, from Switch 2 this year — which is a new platform for us — all the way to PC and Xbox and PlayStation still, I think makes it a unique opportunity.”

Bahl then moves to what can only be described as the bargaining stage, noting that, “If more people are talking about games, if there’s more press around it, that’s going to be good for everybody, not just us.” Of course, it wouldn’t hurt Modern Warfare 4, especially with both games hogging the limelight even as it launches next week.

That is, unless you pre-ordered the game, in which case the campaign will be available starting tomorrow. DMZ, set in the new Hajin City, also goes live on October 20th for those who want to experience its PvEvP extraction shooter action (for as long as it’s supported). And despite Bahl’s insistence that it’s about playing with your friends, you can enter solo.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Check out our feature on the campaign and what you should know before jumping in.

Of course, as with Modern Warfare 3’s Zombies and Black Ops 7’s Endgame, there’s always a concern that Activision will suddenly drop support, especially when a new entry is around the corner. Fans asked Infinity Ward about this in a recent Reddit AMA, and sadly, it said it’s “too early” for any “sweeping commitments.”

“DMZ is an experience we have been working on for years; we’re excited to get into players’ hands, and to play live with you! We have big plans for post-launch and are testing the early seasons of content right now.”

However, the developer added that “we have plans to support and evolve the mode. We’ll be paying close attention to player feedback and how the community responds as we look to what’s next for DMZ.”

It’s unknown if support will continue if there’s a strong player base beyond the first few months. Given that the franchise’s most popular “mode” has been the free-to-play Warzone, with multiplayer in a distant but still significant second, there may not be much hope for DMZ. Nevertheless, time will tell, especially if it can live up to features like Bounties, story missions, etc.

We won’t have to wait long to try them out, thankfully. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. However, pre-orders get advanced access to the campaign on October 16th, while DMZ is available early on October 20th.

Infinity Ward also released a new trailer outlining everything DMZ has to offer. As your team is dropped into the severely irradiated Hajin City, it’s your job to stop the North Korean army and rogue operators from claiming the cache of weapons hidden underground. Since it’s off the books, you’ll need to scrounge up any materials, weapons and cash.

Spending cash upgrades your Forward Operating Base, and you can use materials to 3D print weapons and attachments. Defeating Lieutenants and claiming Bounties on rival players provides exceptional rewards. There are dedicated story missions that your squad can queue up for. Of course, one has to wonder whether this will create balancing concerns, especially since pre-orders get a head start. Time will tell, so stay tuned for updates.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Check out our feature for everything you should know about the campaign.

Begins During a Full-Scale Invasion of South Korea

Modern Warfare 4’s campaign begins with North Korea launching a full-scale invasion of the South, throwing the Korean Peninsula into a devastating conflict which threatens to destabilise the wider world. While the real-life North and South Korea are technically still at war, CoD’s upcoming campaign imagines what would happen if their decades-long standoff eroded. Of course, the fantastical scale and spectacle shown in story trailers is more befitting of a first person shooter game than reality, but the premise is compelling enough to set a story in motion.

You Play as a South Korean Soldier

Along for the ride is South Korean soldier Private Park who, together with his immediate squad, is experiencing front-line conflict for the first time. So, whereas the genre tends to favour grizzled, experienced commandos as the subjects for its stories, Modern Warfare 4’s upcoming campaign looks to bring a more grounded, gritty, and – perhaps – realistic portrayal of war, experienced through the eyes of someone who’s likely more terrified than Price ever was.

Captain Price is Back

And yes, alongside Private Park, Captain John Price is back in the fray too, although he’s now operating as a rogue outlaw and fugitive following the events of Modern Warfare III. See, after his assassination of General Shepherd and the disbanding of Task Force 141, Price is now pursuing a personal vendetta against Vladimir Makarov, with his former teammates instructed to track him down. Price’s story runs alongside the Korean conflict, with his mission eventually intersecting with the geopolitical catastrophe sweeping the globe as well as the hunt for a mysterious superweapon.

The Campaign Has a Much Larger Cast

Modern Warfare 4’s campaign is set to feature a wide ensemble of new and returning characters. Alongside Private Park Hyun Jun are his squad mates Jae, Cho, and Moon. Assisting on the Korean front line are US marines Dunn and West, while Price’s story sees the return of Farah Karim and CIA station chief Kate Laswell, with both harbouring an uneasy alliance with the rogue operative. Commander Phillip Graves is confirmed, as is returning antagonist Makarov. And, an as-yet unnamed character played by Mads Mikkelsen makes a swift appearance in the campaign’s story trailer – could he be the intended recipient of the unknown superweapon?

The Action Expands Beyond Korea

While amphibious landings and city-wide trench warfare dominate Modern Warfare 4’s early campaign, the action shifts to other parts of the world. From nasty, close-quarter skirmishes on the streets of New York, to tense SAS night raids and high-speed chases across Paris, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign hopes to deliver a thrilling, globetrotting blockbuster, with the latest entry exploring some of its most dangerous territory yet.

Historical Conflicts Used as Inspiration for Campaign’s Battles

Modern Warfare 4’s campaign is drawing inspiration from real-world conflict, presenting contemporary and authentic combat encounters rather than imagined battlefields. American forces, for instance, have been tied to the Korean peninsula for decades, with the developer utilising this alongside the region’s historical tension to ground the campaign’s larger-than-life battles into something recognisable, even if heavily dramatised assaults see infantry, armour, and air support retaking a city.

Night Raids Introduce Stealth

But, not every one of Modern Warfare 4’s missions is about strafing through copious explosions. No, the campaign also features stealth-focused SAS night raids, giving you an opportunity to approach combat via subterfuge rather than charging headfirst. The emphasis is very much on tactical, low-light, high-stakes infiltration, tying mission design to Price’s movements outside of recognised systems. If nothing else, night raids will provide a welcome contrast away from the campaign’s larger battles, but they could end up being the game’s most memorable activities.

Cinematic Setpieces Are Still Part of the Formula

If there’s one thing you can expect from this genre, though, it is big, bombastic spectacle, with the developer saying Modern Warfare 4 combines the most memorable set piece moments from genre while upping the scale significantly. The developer has also looked for opportunities to ensure the action never strays too close to fantasy, with high-speed chases through accurately recreated Parisian streets, for example, being narrated by a character who can’t quite believe what they’re seeing. In other words: their disbelief humanises the chaos.

Missions Are Designed With Variety

Variety is a major focus throughout Modern Warfare 4’s campaign, with the developer wanting every mission to feel significantly different from other games in the genre. Even individual missions are constantly evolving their pace. This means that you can expect close-quarters combat, large-scale battles, covert operations, and combined arms warfare to sit side-by-side. The goal, it seems, is for the upcoming campaign to feel anything but predictable, with you continually wondering what the next objective will throw at you.

Vehicles Play a Bigger Role in Combat

Certain encounters throughout the campaign are designed around vehicular combat, with amphibious and recon vehicles, for instance, containing entire squads. Furthermore, the game has described distinct roles within these squads, with vehicle commanders, drivers, scouts, and other soldiers who co-ordinate support such as air strikes. Every operative has a job, with the squad’s make up defined by the vehicle they’re operating within.

Your Squadmates Have Genuine Personalities

Something the game wants to imbue into Modern Warfare 4’s campaign is an entire cast who feel like characters rather than generic soldiers. During casting, the studio conducted chemistry tests to make sure each actor could interact with each other naturally. Furthermore, facial, body, and vocal performances have been captured simultaneously, with performers encouraged to stray from the script if it felt organic to do so. The result should give the campaign’s soldiers their own personalities and relationships.

Korea Isn’t Just a Backdrop

And, as a final point on authenticity before we move onto pre-order and platform info, Modern Warfare 4 takes its Korean setting seriously. Developers with Korean backgrounds have helped shape the game through an internal Korean channel, with the studio consulting on everything from road signs to store layouts. Korean dialect coaches ensure characters communicate naturally too, reinforcing the studio’s careful approach to representing Korea, its people, and society at large.

The Campaign is Playable Early With Pre-Orders

Campaign early access is a considerable bonus if you pre-order a digital copy of the game. Both the digital standard edition and premium editions include campaign early access from October 16th, giving you a full seven days to clear the single player story before the full game, and its multiplayer offerings, launch.

Release Date, Platforms, and Price

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd, with PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC the supported platforms. The standard edition retails for $69.99, while the upgraded Vault Edition will set you back $99.99.

PC Requirements

The minimum PC requirements include: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i5-8400, 12 GB of RAM, and AMD Radeon RX 470 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / 1060 or Intel Arc A580. Recommended specs include AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i7-8700, 16 GB of RAM, and AMD Radeon RX 6700XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 TI or Intel Arc B580. SSD with 70 GB available space is required for both.

We know why DMZ is taking us to Argent City, but we now know more about what we’ll be doing there. It’s going to be intense, with both North Korean troops as well as rogue operators looking to get their hands on as many weapons as possible. You’ll be hard-pressed to pick up a few of your own in a loop that puts looting front and center while also including objectives to complete to improve your DMZ rank.

It’s a gameplay formula that’ll make you think about who you pick fights with based on the rewards you could get for the effort. You’ll need everything you can get since you have to bring it back to your Forward Operating Base (FOB), your command center for the mode.

We’re pretty excited about this one since we get to upgrade it with a bunch of different stations, each coming with its own functionality that’s going to help future missions (like the 3D Printer). It’s probably a good excuse to hit that level 70 cap as soon as we can. This one looks like it may be a lot of fun before Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd.

While Sierra-1 is busy fighting North Korea in the main story, DMZ explores the aftermath of the attack on Hajin City, and how the region has become inhospitable after a nuclear meltdown. So why is North Korea returning? Conveniently enough, there is an “array” of facilities with all kinds of nasty weaponry. Biological, nuclear, chemical – you name it, and they want it.

Of course, they’re not the only ones who know. “Rogue operators” also present a hurdle, and it’s your job to ensure that neither side can leverage those weapons. But since this is “off the books,” you’ll need to scrounge up whatever is available while gathering intel and investigating the arsenal’s exact location.

If it wasn’t clear already, you’ll have to take on both hostile NPCs and other players while venturing through Hajin City, and hopefully emerge unscathed. Infinity Ward hasn’t delved too much into how the mode works, including how punishing it will be, but it’s promising more details this week.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Check out the PC requirements and features in the meantime.