Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23, 2026, and this time the war moves to the Korean Peninsula while Captain Price is hunted by his own former squad. With the last few Call of Duty games taking their share of criticism, Activision has something to prove. Here is everything we know about the story, the new modes, the editions and the platforms before launch.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Release Date and Platforms
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Editions and Price
- Modern Warfare 4 Story and Campaign
- Modern Warfare 4 Characters and Cast
- Modern Warfare 4 Gameplay and Modes
- Modern Warfare 4 Maps
- Modern Warfare 4 PC Requirements
- Modern Warfare 4 Beta Recap
- Modern Warfare 4 – A Quick Summary
- Modern Warfare 4 FAQ
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Release Date and Platforms
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23, 2026 on PC (Steam, Battle.net and the Xbox app), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and, yes, Nintendo Switch 2. Anyone who pre-orders a digital edition gets the campaign a week early, from October 16.
It also ends a long cross-gen streak. Every Call of Duty since Black Ops Cold War in 2020, all the way up to Black Ops 7, also shipped on PS4 and Xbox One. Modern Warfare 4 finally breaks that pattern, so you will need a current-gen console or a PC to play it. The same is with Warzone which dropped old-gen support.
Switch 2 gets a version developed natively for the console by Infinity Ward together with Digital Legends.
Modern Warfare 4 will not be on Xbox Game Pass at launch, so if you want to play on day one, you will have to buy it. Activision hasn’t said whether that will change later but probably yes since BO7 is available.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Editions and Price
Modern Warfare 4 has two main editions. Here is how they compare:
- Standard Edition ($69.99 digital): The full game on your platform of choice, also sold on disc for PS5 and Xbox Series X. The disc version can’t be upgraded to Vault.
- Vault Edition ($99.99): The full game plus the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack, the Special Forces Operator Pack, the Signature Weapon Collection, one season of BlackCell and a DMZ Deployment Bonus. It is digital only, and Standard digital owners can upgrade to it for $30.
There is no collector’s edition, but you can buy steelbook version for consoles. Every digital pre-order also unlocks the Hunter Killer Operator skin, which works in Black Ops 7 and Warzone, and opens the campaign a week early, on October 16.
Returning players who own an eligible Call of Duty title from 2019 or later get 10% off the Vault Edition, but only if they pre-order before launch on October 23.
Modern Warfare 4 Story and Campaign
The Modern Warfare 4 campaign is a direct sequel to Modern Warfare III. It follows two storylines at once: a manhunt for Captain Price and a war breaking out in Korea.
Where the Story Picks Up After Modern Warfare III
The story starts right after the events of Modern Warfare III. With Shepherd dead, Task Force 141 falls apart and Price drops off the grid to work outside the law. His former teammates Ghost and Gaz get the order to bring him in or take him out, and Ghost is openly critical of how Price operates. Kate Laswell of the CIA is still in contact with him, though she is reportedly getting uneasy about it. Price also ends up teaming up with someone who used to be an enemy.
Setting: War on The Korean Peninsula
The second storyline takes place in Korea, where North Korea invades the South. Activision presents it as a setting the series hasn’t done before. You play as Private Park, a young South Korean soldier in a small squad, who gets his first taste of real combat as the front line falls apart. In the background runs a separate plot about a dangerous weapon changing hands: it is headed to a man called The Archer, and Activision says only that it could shift the balance of power worldwide. Beyond Korea, the campaign also takes you to Mumbai, Paris and New York.
Modern Warfare 4 Characters and Cast
The cast mixes returning Task Force 141 members with a few new characters tied to the Korean storyline.
- Captain John Price: The series veteran, now a fugitive working alone against his own former unit.
- Ghost: Sent after Price and doesn’t agree with his methods.
- Kyle “Gaz” Garrick: Ghost’s partner on the manhunt. In the trailer he is the one who says there are limits.
- Kate Laswell: The CIA contact who still talks to Price.
- Private Park: A young South Korean soldier and a playable character. The invasion is his first real combat.
- The Archer: The main antagonist, played by Mads Mikkelsen. He is shown only briefly at the end of the campaign trailer.
Mikkelsen is no stranger to villains. He played Le Chiffre in Casino Royale and Hannibal Lecter in the TV series Hannibal, and in games he is best known as Cliff Unger from Death Stranding. In the trailer he is on screen only for a moment, and Activision hasn’t revealed his character’s motives or what the weapon does.
Modern Warfare 4 Gameplay and Modes
Modern Warfare 4 launches with three modes: Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ. Zombies is not part of the package since it’s Black Ops domain (except for MW3). Here is what each mode offers.
Multiplayer
The biggest change in Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer is that hipfire bloom is gone, so shots go exactly where the weapon is pointed. Infinity Ward is also going for grounded movement rather than the Omnimovement of recent Black Ops games. Instead, you can mantle without losing momentum while sprinting, hang from ledges and shimmy along them, and climb or slide down the pipes on the sides of buildings. All of it was playable in the beta, which also had a Mobility Course in the West Bridge training facility for practicing movement.
The classics are back, including Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, Free for All, Search & Destroy and Gunfight, and the launch playlist adds several new modes:
- Inflation: A mode about cash. Eliminations drop money, dying costs you part of what you picked up, and the team with the biggest stack wins.
- Hijack: An objective mode where the goal is to get a Data Spike to the enemy Comm Station. Teammates can carry it or throw it to each other, and once it is planted it keeps scoring unless the defenders disarm it.
- Counter Attack: A new respawn mode with an objective, built around counter-attacking.
- Gunfight 10v10: Gunfight with 10 players on each side, played in the Kill Block training facility.
- Arms Deal: A 5v5 spin on Search & Destroy where kills and objective play also earn you cash during the match.
- Combat Outpost: A Ground War mode for large maps with infantry and vehicles. Teams fight over outposts, and every captured one becomes a spawn point and unlocks better team support, up to armored vehicles.
A mode called Frontline is also part of the launch lineup. Crossplay works across all platforms, so you can squad up with friends regardless of where they play.
DMZ
DMZ is back as Modern Warfare 4’s extraction mode, first introduced in the Modern Warfare II era. Squads drop into the Hajin Exclusion Zone, a place that exists because of what happens in the campaign, loot it, complete objectives and try to get out alive. Activision says the mode mixes story missions, dynamic operations and encounters with other players, and your progress carries over between matches. The Aston Martin Dreadnought, a vehicle made specially for Modern Warfare 4, will turn up in some parts of DMZ and Warzone.
Warzone
Modern Warfare 4 also plugs into the free-to-play Warzone. Warzone is reportedly dropping support for PS4 and Xbox One after Modern Warfare 4 launches in October, in line with the new game leaving previous-generation consoles behind.
Modern Warfare 4 Maps
Modern Warfare 4 launches with 12 brand-new core 6v6 maps, and none of them are remasters. Ten have been detailed so far, and six of them (Cachette, Lithium, Lotus, Rooftops, Silkworm and Transit 213) were playable in the open beta:
- Cachette: A hideout next to a French rail terminal, with plenty of flanking routes.
- Coal: A ruined Soviet coal plant in the mountains.
- Lithium: A damaged lithium plant in rural Mexico.
- Lotus: A Korean fishing village wrecked by the invasion.
- Mumbai: A hideout inside a dense residential district with a Victorian market.
- Munition: A North Korean command facility with a large ammunition depot.
- Rooftops: Snowy hotel rooftops in New York.
- Sentry: A North Korean military base in a snowstorm.
- Silkworm: A South Korean shopping district where fights stay at street level.
- Transit 213: A parking lot in western India packed with old buses.
Two more maps, reportedly called Nautical and Reactor U92, appeared in early listings but haven’t been detailed yet.
Gunfight is played in Kill Block, a modular training facility that rearranges itself between rounds and can produce more than 500 different layouts.
Ground War uses much bigger maps with vehicles, including Imjin Farmland and Wolves Stadium from the beta, and Warzone Resurgence gets a new map called Zodiac.
Modern Warfare 4 PC Requirements
Activision hasn’t published the final PC requirements for Modern Warfare 4 yet, but it did release official specs for the beta, and the full game will probably land close to them. Here is what the beta asked for:
Minimum:
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i5-8400
- RAM: 12 GB
- GPU: GTX 970, GTX 1060, RX 470 or Arc A580
- Storage: SSD
- DirectX: 12
Recommended:
- OS: Windows 11 (64-bit)
- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i7-8700
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT or Arc B580 (8 GB of VRAM)
- Storage: SSD
- DirectX: 12
As always TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot have to be enabled to play online, because the game’s anti-cheat depends on them, and on many PCs that just means changing a setting in the BIOS. Only Intel and AMD processors with AVX are supported, and Intel Arc cards need Resizable BAR turned on. If you have the hardware for it, the PC version also supports DLSS 4.5 and expanded ray tracing in the campaign, multiplayer and DMZ, and the game uses texture streaming to keep the install size down.
Modern Warfare 4 Beta Recap
The Modern Warfare 4 beta ran over two weekends and is now over. Early Access, for players who had pre-ordered, ran from August 21 to 25. It was followed by an open beta from August 28 to September 1, free for everyone on every platform. Switch 2 players could only join that second weekend. The beta covered six core 6v6 maps, Kill Block Gunfight, the Combat Outpost mode in Ground War, a campaign mission called “Entrenched” and the Zodiac map in Warzone Resurgence.
The beta rewards you earned carry over to the full game on October 23, as long as they are tied to your Activision account, but your progression resets.
Modern Warfare 4 – A Quick Summary
Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, with the Standard Edition at $69.99 and the Vault Edition at $99.99. It isn’t on Game Pass at launch, and a digital pre-order gets you into the campaign a week early, on October 16.
With a new setting in Korea, a batch of new multiplayer modes and a story that picks up right where Modern Warfare III left off, we won’t have to wait long to see whether this is the comeback Activision needs.
We’ll keep this article updated as more details come out, including the final PC requirements and the remaining multiplayer maps. In the meantime: you can get your pre-order copy right here!
Modern Warfare 4: FAQ
Modern Warfare 4 comes out on October 23, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Anyone who pre-orders a digital edition can start the campaign a week earlier, on October 16.
Yes. Infinity Ward is building it natively for the console together with Digital Legends.
The Standard Edition costs $69.99 and the Vault Edition costs $99.99. If you already own the Standard Edition digitally, you can upgrade to Vault for $30.
No. Activision hasn’t announced a Zombies mode for Modern Warfare 4, which launches with Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ. Zombies is a Treyarch mode, and the current version is in Black Ops 7.
Not at launch. You will have to buy the game to play it on day one, and Activision hasn’t said whether that will change later.
No. Modern Warfare 4 is only coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Unlike every Call of Duty since 2020, it has no last-gen version.
No. The beta ran over two weekends, from August 21 to 25 for pre-orders and from August 28 to September 1 for everyone, and it has ended. Rewards you unlocked carry over to the full game on October 23, but your progression resets.
No. Modern Warfare 4 is a new game and a sequel to Modern Warfare III, not a remake of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from 2007.
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