Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was always going to be a tough launch. After back-to-back releases on Xbox Game Pass, this year’s Call of Duty isn’t, and of course, it comes out less than a month before GTA 6.
In the latest race to secure your pre-order for Modern Warfare 4, Activision has announced today that two-thirds of the game will now be playable early. But only if you’ve pre-ordered it in time. And only if you’ve digitally pre-ordered it. Physical copies will still have to wait until the main launch date.
Campaign early access begins on October 16, and four days later we’ll now be able to drop into DMZ on October 20. The game actually releases on October 23, but at this point, that only now means multiplayer.
DMZ Early Access begins October 20.
A week of DMZ intel only scratched the surface.
The rest is yours to discover. https://t.co/HwXUoa4mSfOctober 9, 2026
We’re at the end of a weeklong drop of intel on the DMZ mode, which it’s fair to say is the one that people who are planning to play Modern Warfare 4 are most interested in.
During the beta we got a chance to try out the multiplayer and play through a campaign mission, but nobody has yet touched the extraction shooter mode, DMZ.
It’s not the first time Call of Duty has dabbled with an extraction shooter. The first DMZ (which you can still play) was a free-to-play expansion of Modern Warfare 2. Then a year later came Modern Warfare 3 Zombies, which utilized the Ursikstan Warzone map for an entirely PvE extraction experience.
Black Ops 7 also had Endgame, another purely PvE extraction mode, but with the return of DMZ, it’ll be back to PvPvE action.
It looks extremely promising, though. There will be missions to complete and narratives to unravel, rewards to be earned, and what looks like a fairly deep and substantial progression system.
DMZ will also have its own Mastery Camo grind, which will certainly require some forward planning based on the gameplay loop. If you lose a weapon in the DMZ, you’ll need to get another, or acquire it through the FOB, which also requires extra steps.
Nevertheless, if you’re looking forward to DMZ, get your digital pre-order in now at the Xbox Store (with Xbox Play Anywhere), Steam, PS5, or Battle.net.
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