Modern Warfare 4 2026: Release Date, Maps, Modes, DMZ

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched on October 23, 2026. Digital pre-orders could play the campaign in Early Access from October 16 and DMZ from October 20, and the reveal cycle is over. Since the May announcement Infinity Ward has shown the campaign at Tokyo Game Show, run the biggest beta in series history, laid out every launch map, mode, weapon count and progression system at Call of Duty: NEXT, confirmed Hajin as the next Warzone map, and published two long DMZ guides. This post is everything we know about Modern Warfare 4 so far, rebuilt from the ground up on what is now confirmed, with the questions people keep asking answered up front: Gaz is in, Zombies is not, Shipment arrived on October 27, and your Warzone collection survives.

Everything below is sourced from Activision’s official blogs unless we say otherwise. Where a detail still comes from press hands-on sessions or creator reports, we flag it.

Release Date, Early Access and Platforms

Modern Warfare 4 launched on Friday October 23, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam, Battle.net and Xbox on PC) and Nintendo Switch 2. No PS4 or Xbox One version. The game is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so a digital purchase on Xbox also gives you the PC version. It is not on Game Pass at launch. Activision’s October 15 COD Intel post says it will not be included with Game Pass until Holiday 2027, in line with Microsoft’s April decision to add new Call of Duty titles to the service roughly a year after release.

Digital pre-orders (Standard Digital or Vault Edition) on any platform did not have to wait until the 23rd:

• Friday October 16: Campaign Early Access, the full campaign one week early.
• Tuesday October 20: DMZ Early Access, all of DMZ three days early.
• Friday October 23: full launch, including Multiplayer.

Activision’s small print notes that start times depend on your time zone and that platform availability can change. Physical Standard Edition buyers (consoles only) get the game on launch day.

Campaign: Korea, Price on the Run and The Archer

The campaign opens with North Korea launching a full-scale invasion of South Korea, starting with Hajin City. It is a setting the franchise has never properly explored, and Infinity Ward co-studio head Jack O’Hara explained the reasoning: “That’s what made it compelling. It felt new. It felt like going somewhere new.”

Activision’s Tokyo Game Show trailer blog from September 17 lays out the three threads that run through it:

• Price on the run. After assassinating General Shepherd at the end of MW3 (2023), John Price is an “operator-turned-outlaw” and Task Force 141 has been disbanded. Ghost questions his methods, and Ghost and Gaz are tasked with capturing or killing their former captain. CIA Station Chief Kate Laswell stays in contact with Price, though the blog hints that even she is growing wary.
• A peninsula in turmoil. Private Park Hyun Jun and his squad of Korean conscripts and embedded US Marines fight to save their country, with joint US/ROK ground combat and an amphibious assault. The invasion is led by Commander Ri Ju-Young (“Shut down the peninsula, then we invade”).
• A weapon of war. An unknown weapon is being delivered to an enemy known only as “The Archer.” Laswell’s line in the trailer: “You are moving a weapon of war. What do you think happens when that weapon gets to the Archer?”

Price finds help where he can get it, which means Valeria Garza, El Sin Nombre, the Las Almas Cartel leader Task Force 141 fought in MW2 (2022). The trailer gives her the line “Why sit on the high ground and watch the world burn when we can fight fire with fire?”

Click to enlarge Commander Ri Ju-Young

Click to enlarge The manhunt for Price

Click to enlarge Price, gone dark

Missions take you across Korean trenches, close-quarters combat in New York, high-speed chases through Paris, SAS night raids in Mumbai, a citywide assault to reclaim occupied territory, and operations in Russia. Two missions already have names. “Losing Ground,” shown in July, is one of the large war missions where a South Korean squad fights through a collapsing frontline. “Entrenched,” the first campaign mission ever included in a Call of Duty beta, is a large-scale assault to stop a nuclear power station falling into enemy hands, fought alongside friendly armor and infantry.

One campaign detail is worth knowing before you go in, so skip this paragraph if you want the story cold. Press who played the campaign at the reveal event report that Makarov dies early, in a New York mission, rather than serving as the villain for the whole game. His death opens up the conspiracy and the weapon that push Price into espionage work and the alliance with Valeria. That is press reporting, not an official plot summary, but the TGS trailer’s focus on The Archer fits it.

Is Gaz in MW4? Soap? Makarov?

These are the three questions people search for most, so here they are in one place. Gaz is in. The official TGS blog quotes him (“There is a line… and it’s one we don’t cross”) and names Ghost and Gaz as the two sent after Price. For most of 2026 he was simply missing from the announced cast, which is where the doubt came from. Soap is not. He died in MW3 (2023) defusing the Channel Tunnel bomb, and Activision’s Story So Far recap repeats it. His death is the reason Price killed Shepherd and went underground. Makarov is in, as the man Price is hunting when the game opens, with the caveat about his screen time above.

Infinity Ward also mentioned a “Shockwave” system where explosions knock players down instead of killing them outright, which O’Hara says creates moments where “the story continues” instead of instant death. If you want the full three-game backstory before you start the campaign, the Story So Far blog covers 2019 through 2023 in ten minutes.

Multiplayer: Ballistic Authority and Movement

Infinity Ward’s stated philosophy for MW4 multiplayer is boots on the ground, grounded movement, hard-hitting weaponry, and realism that never gets in the player’s way. The biggest technical change is Ballistic Authority, which removes bloom from hipfire. Bullets now travel from where the barrel points, so sway, recoil, movement and handling are the only things that affect accuracy. Infinity Ward’s own summary: “no bloom, no guesswork, no doubt.” Equip a laser attachment and the beam shows you exactly where your rounds go.

The NEXT blog details the rest of the gunplay package. Weapon and world now render in the same field of view, so the gun sits naturally in frame instead of being drawn at a lower FOV. Muzzle smoke is masked around your point of aim so you never lose the target, with the mask tuned per optic. Depth of field isolates the weapon while keeping your aim point sharp. Weapons retract and shift stance near walls, and Tactical Sprint now degrades as stamina drains rather than running as a fixed burst. In the beta, hipfire and visibility were the two things most players agreed had improved, and Infinity Ward pushed balance updates through official patch notes across both weekends.

Movement

Omnimovement from the Black Ops side is gone. MW4 instead expands traversal with a set of chained mechanics that work in Campaign, Multiplayer, DMZ and Warzone:

• Mantle Slide: go from a mantle straight into a slide over a car hood or low cover.
• Mantle Momentum and Mantle Steering: mantles keep your speed, and you can steer, aim down sights, or abort mid-mantle.
• Supine Slide: double-tap crouch during a sprint for a longer, lower slide that ends on your back, feet forward, still able to shoot.
• Pipe Climb and Fast Pipe Slide: climb pipework on buildings, or hold crouch to drop down it fast.
• Hang Shimmy, Hang Lean and Climbing Jump: move along ledges, aim with full rotation while hanging, and jump in any direction from ledges, ladders and pipes.

A dedicated Mobility Course teaches all of it with tutorials and timed runs rated from C- to S. It was in the beta and ships with the full game. Other confirmations that have stacked up since the reveal: takedowns are first-person, doors return and can be peeked or breached, the riot shield is now a destructible Field Upgrade rather than a weapon, and players who went hands-on report map voting, theater mode and red dots on the minimap for unsuppressed fire. Those last three are from creator accounts rather than official blogs.

The 12 Core Launch Maps

MW4 launches with 12 core 6v6 maps spanning Korea, France, Mexico, India, New York and a Soviet coal plant, each with its own insignia and visual identity. Six were playable in the beta. Here is the full list with Infinity Ward’s descriptions:

Click to enlarge Cachette

Click to enlarge Lithium

Click to enlarge Lotus

Click to enlarge Rooftops

Click to enlarge Silkworm

Click to enlarge Transit 213

Beyond the 12, Multiplayer launched with 20 maps in total, according to the launch patch notes. The three 32v32 Ground War maps sit on Hajin, Imjin Farmland, Wolves Stadium and Forest, a wooded hillside between the other two. The four 2v2 Gunfight maps are Cafe (a Paris courtyard), Library, NYC (a winter stage downtown) and Smuggler (a rail yard). The last one is Kill Block, which runs 3v3 and 10v10 Gunfight. Hajin itself is the DMZ map. Gun Game is the party mode at launch, with Possession and Infected added for Halloween on October 29 and 30.

Will Shipment be in MW4?

Yes, since October 27. Shipment was not in the launch rotation, but Infinity Ward’s October 14 roadmap dated it four days after launch. According to the Maps and Modes blog it is a 6v6 map on a Russian harbor, hemmed in between the water and concrete panel buildings, with the classic layout. Shipment was also added after launch to MW2019, MW2 (2022) and MW3 (2023).

Modes: Inflation, Hijack, Collateral and Combat Outpost

The launch mode list from Infinity Ward’s Maps and Modes blog of October 21, with Hardcore variants marked:

• Respawn: Inflation (new), Hijack (new), Frontline, Team Deathmatch*, Domination*, Hardpoint*, Kill Confirmed*, Free for All*
• Round-based tactical: Search and Destroy*, Collateral (new), Gunfight in 2v2, 3v3 and 10v10
• Ground War: Combat Outpost (new), 32v32
• Party: Gun Game at launch, Possession (new) from October 29 and Infected from October 30

(* has a Hardcore variant at launch)

Click to enlarge Hijack

Click to enlarge Inflation

Click to enlarge Collateral

• Inflation (6v6): every elimination drops cash. Hold on to it to build your team’s total, but every death leaves part of your cash behind, and the richest players are marked as High Value Targets with their position revealed. Most cash wins.
• Hijack (6v6): both teams fight over one Data Spike. Carry it, throw it, or pass it to teammates, plant it at the enemy Comm Station to score over time, and get a bonus if it detonates. Defenders defuse. While carrying the Spike you cannot use your Lethal, because that input throws it.
• Collateral (5v5): Search and Destroy with an economy. Everyone starts with a pistol and earns cash from kills and objectives to buy armor, perks (Battle Hardened, Lethal Reach, Fast Hands, Ghost), equipment, pistols, standard-issue guns, Tier 1 rifles and a team UAV between rounds. One life, no killstreaks, no health regen, no custom loadouts, and you lose your loadout when you die. Built for the competitive crowd.
• Frontline (6v6): a returning mode. Teams always deploy from their own base and score more for kills outside the enemy base, pushing both sides forward.
• Possession: a new Halloween party mode from October 29. Eliminate an enemy and you possess them, taking over their position and their loadout.
• Smartstreaks: not a mode but a rule change. Killstreaks now count objective play toward your streak, with kills still the main driver.

Ground War: Combat Outpost

Click to enlarge Imjin Farmland (24v24 in the beta, 32v32 at launch)

Click to enlarge Wolves Stadium (24v24 in the beta, 32v32 at launch)

Combat Outpost reimagines Domination for 32v32 Ground War. It ran 24v24 in the beta. Capture Outposts for a steady stream of points, and captured Outposts become spawn points and resupply stations. Reinforce them to unlock escalating team rewards: local UAV coverage, a JLTV airdrop, and a Light Tank delivered to your headquarters. It runs on three Ground War maps from Hajin. Imjin Farmland is open fields, waterways and a mill that towers over the map, and Wolves Stadium is dense city blocks, transit lines, tunnels and rooftops around the stadium itself, with an amphitheater stage that vehicles cannot easily reach. Forest, between the two, is a wooded hillside with a guard tower at the top, a gas station and barracks. Expect tanks, armored vehicles and airborne killstreaks overhead.

Kill Block

Kill Block is the Westbridge Training Facility, a live-fire training ground built from three modular sections called Slabs: two outer areas and one central combat space. Every two rounds a new Combo is assembled, with a new randomized shared loadout for everyone, forcing you to reassess sightlines, routes and cover. More than 500 configurations are possible at launch, weather ranges from clear to rain to snow, and some Slabs recreate pieces of Modern Warfare history: Infinity Ward names Crash, Highrise and Shoot House, and players at Fanatics Fest in July also spotted Winter Crash and Kill House.

At launch Kill Block hosts Gunfight 3v3 and the new Gunfight 10v10, with an Overtime Flag if neither team is wiped before time runs out. Infinity Ward says Search and Destroy and Domination are already being tested on it, with more core modes and Slab combinations planned after launch. The idea was inspired by Real Madrid’s stadium, which moves its pitch between events. Our community was split on it in May, between players who want maps that stay fresh and players who want maps they can learn, and the beta did not settle that argument.

Weapons, Gunsmith, Apex Attachments and Gunny

MW4 launches with 33 weapons (24 primary, 8 secondary, 1 melee), 28 Apex Attachments and more than 500 standard attachments. Create-a-Class is a single vertical list where every loadout carries its own Operator, Killstreak set, Perks, weapons and equipment, up to 12 custom loadouts. Operators are cosmetic, with their own voice lines and interchangeable Finishing Moves. The beta had 21 Operators, with more at launch.

The beta showed 22 of the 33 weapons. Assault rifles: Han 86, M4, Hyeon Burst, Kastov 762, Patriot XMR and Axion. SMGs: ISO Nightshade, PPSh-41, X-58 Nyx and Wz.55 Striga. Shotgun: Rezi 12. LMGs: Finn LMG and Type 73. Marksman: MAR-9 and Oris 8.6. Snipers: KG-7 Vulcan and Signal .50. Pistols: Krait P68, .50 GS and Sang 9mm. Plus the PILA launcher and the Combat Knife. The other 11, all in the DMZ Gunsmith since October 20, are the Oden and Cronen Squall assault rifles (some menus listed them and the Patriot XMR as battle rifles until the October 25 update), the VEL 46 SMG, the Warlord shotgun, the APOC-338 LMG, the Mosin-Nagant marksman rifle, the Astaroth .57 sniper, the Mojave .357 revolver and the RPG-8, JOKR and PM-40 Anvil launchers.

Click to enlarge Han 86 and its Skybreaker Apex

Click to enlarge M4 and the Hurricane Apex

Click to enlarge Kastov 762 with two Apex options

Apex Attachments

Apex Attachments are the final unlock for maxing a weapon. They sit in their own slot, cost no attachment space, and change what the gun is rather than nudging stats. The official examples show the range:

• M4 Hurricane: a top-loading 5.7x28 conversion fed from a P90-style magazine, turning the M4 into a high-velocity SMG.
• Han 86 X20 Skybreaker: a targeting optic and 20mm airburst launcher that detonates over cover.
• Kastov ARC: a barrel-mounted RF jammer that incapacitates infantry, cripples electronics and destabilizes vehicles and killstreaks.
• ISO Nightshade Trace: RFID ammunition that marks hit enemies on an optic display and tracks them behind cover, at the cost of velocity and penetration.
• Oris 8.6 Razor: a sidesaddle of quick-draw kunai on a marksman rifle.
• Sang 9&12: a side-break 12-gauge shotgun mounted on a pistol frame.
• Mojave .357 Outlaw: a single-action hammer for fanning the hammer from the hip.
• X-58 Nyx Shroud: a stealth configuration that hides firing visibility and shot direction.

Some press called these “outlandish” for a game that markets itself as grounded, and that tension came up constantly in our Discord: members want MW4 to stay a military shooter. Apex Attachments only unlock once a weapon is fully maxed, and the weapon cards in the beta put the caps between the mid-40s and low 70s, so you will not see many of them in week one. The early event Apex Attachments from the beta are gone at launch. Infinity Ward says they return soon, and events will hand out new ones.

Two quality-of-life changes matter more than they sound. Weapon progression no longer repeats itself, because an attachment unlocks once and is then available on every weapon that uses it, and if a weapon level would award something you already own, you skip that level with a Bonus Level Up. And Gunny, short for Gunnery Sergeant, builds a working loadout for any weapon with one input, using developer-made builds for short range, balanced and long range play, which you can then edit. Hollow Point ammunition returns (delays enemy healing and leaves a blood trail), and compatible lasers unlock a Canted Stance.

Perks, Killstreaks and Equipment

Click to enlarge Perks: Pick 3, one per slot

Click to enlarge Killstreaks: 10 in the beta, 17 at launch

Perks use a Pick 3 system, one from each of three slots, with 18 at launch. Infinity Ward reshuffled the slots after the beta. At launch Perk 1 holds Quick Fix, Overkill, High Alert, Ghost, Resupply and Kill Chain. Perk 2 holds Hardline, Blood Rush, Bomb Squad, Fast Hands, Ninja and Birdseye. Perk 3 holds Lethal Reach, Combat Grid, Battle Hardened, Scavenger, Tracker and Cold-Blooded. Tactical Sprint only comes with Blood Rush, which now triggers it with a single tap of sprint by default, and you can switch that back in the Movement Advanced Settings.

There are 17 Killstreaks at launch, up to three per loadout, and thanks to Smartstreaks objective play counts toward them. The UAV costs 5 kills, or 4 with Hardline, and its health went up from 100 to 150 for launch. The beta’s ten were UAV, Bomb Glider, Care Package, Impact Warhead, Artillery Beacon, Crossfire, Combat Drone, Wheelson, Missile Salvo and Attack Helicopter. The Bomb Glider is new: a low-cost, hand-thrown glider you pilot yourself to scout and then dive-bomb, with a new mouse-and-keyboard control scheme.

Click to enlarge Tacticals (9 at launch)

Click to enlarge Lethals (11 at launch)

Click to enlarge Field Upgrades (12 at launch)

Equipment runs to 9 Tacticals, 11 Lethals and 12 Field Upgrades at launch, with four headline additions:

• Trip Wire (Lethal): a throwable mine that strings an explosive line along the ground, between walls, or vertically depending on where it lands, and links up with nearby Trip Wires from squadmates into a web.
• Smoke Wall (Field Upgrade): a rocket that flies forward over obstacles leaving a dense volumetric smoke trail you can move through. Gunfire thins it and explosives disperse it.
• Razor Wire (Field Upgrade): a trap that bursts into barbed wire on contact. You can push through at a cost to speed and health, or shoot or melee a path.
• Riot Shield (Field Upgrade): now a timed tool instead of a primary weapon. It blocks frontal fire, has a heavy melee that knocks enemies down, can be planted as cover, and is destructible.

Other beta equipment included the Drill Charge, Zip Gun, Shock Stick, Heartbeat Sensor, Inflatable Decoy, Seeker Drone, SAM Airburst Turret, DDoS and Portable Radar. Field Upgrades recharge over time in Multiplayer, but not in DMZ.

Prestige, Camos and Beta Rewards

MW4 brings two Prestige paths. Classic Prestige resets your level unlocks and Create-a-Class in exchange for faster XP, exclusive rewards and a path to Prestige Mastery. Regular Prestige returns you to Level 1 while keeping every unlock, with its own smaller set of rewards and milestones. Classic Prestige coming back was universally praised in our Discord; Regular Prestige got a cooler reception, but having the choice means nobody is forced into the old grind.

The camo system spans all three modes. Each weapon has one Camo Track that progresses whether you are in Multiplayer, DMZ or Warzone. Complete it and that weapon’s Mastery Camo Challenges open up, with three Mastery Camos to earn in each mode, nine in total. Weapon levels and attachments are shared between Multiplayer and DMZ too, so time in Hajin counts.

If you played the August beta, your cosmetic rewards are waiting at launch, tied to your Activision account: the “Through the Paces” emblem, “First Served” charm, “Meonjeo” sticker, “Last Charge” calling card, “Dread Tiger” Operator skin for Reece, “Field Tested” spray, “Beta Rights” loading screen and the “Beta Forged” Han 86 blueprint at Level 30, plus the Mobility Course’s Clockwork charm and the Twitch drops. Player level and weapon unlocks from the beta do not carry over.

DMZ: Hajin, Live Since October 20

DMZ returns as MW4’s third pillar, and it has been playable since October 20, when Early Access opened for digital pre-orders three days before Multiplayer. It is set in the Hajin Exclusion Zone, the irradiated region left behind by the campaign, where you play a shadow CIA asset securing military tech behind enemy lines. The map is bigger than Al Mazrah, with 13 major points of interest (a political prison, an air base with an Extreme-rated bunker, a nuclear reactor, Hajin City’s fortified Grid, a casino, a hospital, a stadium) and over 60 named locations. Every POI has an official threat level from Low to Extreme that rises as you make noise. The Russian border is inaccessible at launch and arrives in later seasons.

Between deployments you run a persistent Forward Operating Base with a 3D Printer, Gunsmith, Vendor, Boss Board, Stash and Bounty Leaderboard, gated behind a dedicated Level 1 to 70 DMZ progression track. Operators level a Dog Tag through 18 ranks for Trait Points across Warfighter, Scout and Survivalist trees, and our MW4 DMZ traits guide has every trait and our best builds. Operator Prestige trades your Traits for a permanent Prestige Trait. As of October 27, Infinity Ward lists a known issue that keeps some players from Prestiging an Operator, and its workaround is to equip Rare weapons with only three attachment slots, see our FOB guide. Named Lieutenants and three types of roaming Commander (the Colossus, the Deathstalker drone and a battle tank) are the bosses. According to Activision, killing four rival Operators makes you Wanted, with Top 50 Most Wanted and Bounty Hunter boards in the FOB, and infil ranges from free on foot to a 100,000 DMZ Cash cargo plane you can aim anywhere.

New to the mode? Our guide to what MW4 DMZ is answers the basics, from whether it is free and PvE or PvP to solo play, squad size, the FOB, Traits, bounties and the infil prices. DMZ was the most discussed feature in our Discord after the announcement, and it still is. Our interactive MW4 DMZ map shows every POI, Lieutenant and tower on Hajin.

Since DMZ Early Access opened on October 20 we have added guides from our own runs. They cover DMZ Orders pages 1 to 10, the Boss Board, the Dynamic Ops we have played, the 3D Printer recipes and ingredient locations we captured, and every DMZ level reward from 2 to 70. We also have walkthroughs for all six Story Missions: Operation Critical Extraction, Operation Silent Ledger, Operation Shopping Hacks, Operation Iron Citadel, Operation Grid Assault and Operation Fallen Ember.

No Zombies in MW4

MW4 does not include a Zombies mode. DMZ is the third pillar, and Zombies stays with the Black Ops series. This is still one of the most searched questions about the game, so to be clear: there is no Zombies in Modern Warfare 4, not at launch and not announced for any season, and no Endgame either, because Endgame is a BO7 Zombies mode.

For our community this means BO7 Zombies stays relevant longer. No competing Zombies mode means Endgame, relic hunts and high round runs keep their momentum. We have a complete BO7 Zombies loadout guide and an Endgame explainer for anyone still working through the mode.

Warzone: Hajin, Zodiac and Carry Forward

Click to enlarge Zodiac (Resurgence, 44 players)

Click to enlarge The Zodiac map

Two things changed since the summer, and both are good news for Warzone players. First, Hajin is the next Battle Royale map. Activision confirmed at NEXT that “the DMZ map Hajin is also coming to Battle Royale,” arriving in Season 1 together with Zodiac, a Resurgence map built by Beenox around the DRC Advanced Systems drone headquarters, with a double train line running through the middle. Zodiac was playable in beta weekend two at 44 players. Infinity Ward’s October 14 roadmap puts Season 1 for MW4 and Warzone on November 6, 2026.

Second, the “full reset” is off. In May the message was that nothing would carry forward. On September 24 Activision’s Warzone Season 1 blog confirmed that Operators and weapons from Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III, Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 remain available in Warzone from Season 1, including the skins and blueprints you earned or bought. Legacy weapons move to a Legacy tab in the loadout menu as five-attachment versions, with blueprints keeping their existing setups, but without Gunsmith editing or your old custom loadouts. Raven’s goal is a meta “distinctly rooted in Modern Warfare 4” with biweekly balancing, while the old collection stays usable.

The same blog adds an Operator Skin Toggle, off by default and Warzone-only, that replaces every other player’s non-MW4 Operator with an MW4 one on your screen. Your own skin is unaffected, and it changes nothing for other players. Warzone also leaves PS4 and Xbox One with the MW4 launch.

Your tokens make the trip too. Call of Duty’s community team account confirmed on August 5 that unused 2XP tokens transfer:

The same account answered the follow-up on Reddit: COD Points move across too, within the same platform family. That is a community manager statement rather than a published policy, but it is a direct one.

Editions, Pre-Order Bonuses and Prices

Click to enlarge Inner Circuit on Xbox Series X|S

Click to enlarge Inner Circuit on every other platform

The Inner Circuit M4 Blueprint was added as a digital pre-order bonus on September 9. It is a mobile, mid-to-close-range build with the 11.5“ Shortline barrel, FTAC Dominion muzzle, FSS Fireline grip, SZ Prima-4 dot optic and ZLR ASP50 stock. On Xbox Series X|S it comes in a translucent OG Green finish for the 25th anniversary of Xbox; everywhere else it is mil-spec. Same attachments, same performance, and the look is platform-specific, not selectable. The Hunter Killer Operator skin is usable immediately in BO7 and Warzone.

The Vault Edition’s Signature Weapon Collection is the Kastov 762 “Voltspine,” ISO Nightshade “La Sombra Venenosa,” Rezi 12 “Shattered Code,” Oris 8.6 “Volt-Edge” and the Combat Knife “Sombra Besada,” each ranged weapon with its Apex Attachment unlocked from day one. The DMZ Deployment Bonus means three Active Duty Operator slots instead of two plus a Deployment Kit with Weapon Insurance Contracts, Operator Rescue Beacons, Fulton Drop Markers, Medium Backpacks and 2-Plate Carriers. The 10% loyalty discount applies if you own any Call of Duty title from 2019 onward on the same platform, which brings the Vault Edition to around $90.

PC Specs and Switch 2

Beenox leads the PC version. The headline target is 90 FPS at recommended specs on High settings without manual tweaking, ray tracing in Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ, 800+ settings, a built-in benchmark tool, and sub-frame mouse polling. Upscaling covers DLSS 4.5, FSR Redstone, XeSS 3 and Filmic SMAA T2X. Enhanced FOV is PC-only: a lens-based field of view that widens the edges of the screen without shrinking targets in the center. Advanced Shader Delivery precompiles shaders through the Xbox PC app so launch day is not a shader wait, and updates no longer force a restart on boot.

That 115 GB is not fixed. You can skip or remove Campaign, Multiplayer, DMZ or Warzone, and our guide on how to uninstall MW4 game modes shows how on PC, PS5 and Xbox.

TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required on PC, Intel Arc GPUs need Resizable BAR, and only Intel and AMD processors with AVX are supported. RICOCHET Anti-Cheat combines server-side detection, those hardware checks, investigations and legal action, with 2FA and email verification on accounts.

On Switch 2 the game is a native build with Digital Legends, not a cloud version. Activision’s Switch 2 blog lists Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, gyro, Pro Controller support, HDR and handheld play, and the beta ran all of Multiplayer, the Entrenched campaign mission and Warzone Resurgence on the system. Some members in our Discord were skeptical about how the game would run on Switch 2; the beta screenshots Activision published were captured in-game on the system, and Switch 2 players with a digital pre-order have had the campaign since October 16, so the proof is in their hands.

Our Take

MW4 looks stronger now than it did in May, and the reason is that Infinity Ward has shown rather than promised. The beta was the biggest the series has run and it answered the question that mattered: Ballistic Authority works, hipfire is honest, and the visibility fixes are real. Twelve maps with distinct identities, a Gunfight arena that changes every two rounds, a competitive mode with an economy, and a DMZ with more systems than some standalone extraction shooters add up to the most complete launch package a Modern Warfare game has had.

The concerns are the same ones we had in May, sharpened. Apex Attachments pull against the grounded tone the game sells itself on, and our members keep saying “keep it grounded” more than anything else. Kill Block still has to prove that reconfiguring maps stay fun after a hundred hours rather than just unfamiliar. And the Warzone side has changed message once already, from full reset to carry forward, which is better for players who spent money but a reminder that plans around MW4’s live year are still moving.

Our community reactions on announcement day have held up. DMZ stole the show, and multiple members said it was the reason they would pre-order. The trailer got a mixed reception: strong graphics and tone, no standout moment. The TGS campaign trailer and the two DMZ guides have done more for the hype in our server than anything from the summer. Our server skews toward Zombies and BO7 players, so keep that in mind.

The MW4 roadmap so far

Infinity Ward published a dated roadmap on October 14. Shipment arrived on October 27, the new Possession mode follows on October 29 and Infected on October 30, and Season 1 starts on November 6 for MW4 and Warzone. Season 1 adds Hajin and Zodiac to Warzone and starts seasonal progression there. Kill Block gets new Slab combinations and more core modes after launch. In DMZ, Story Missions update seasonally and the Russian part of Hajin opens in a later season. The Vault Edition’s BlackCell covers one season.

Campaign Early Access opened on October 16, DMZ on October 20 and the full game, Multiplayer included, on October 23. Next is Season 1 on November 6, with Hajin and Zodiac in Warzone. All 33 launch weapons, including the 11 the beta never showed, are listed in the weapons section above. For the extraction side, start with our DMZ Hajin map guide.

Join 50,000+ members in our COD Central Discord to find a squad. Our MW4 Discord page shows what the server offers for multiplayer, DMZ and Warzone.

FAQ