For the first time in over a decade, a new Call of Duty game is launching on a Nintendo console this fall. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will arrive on Switch 2 alongside PC, Xbox, and PS5. Over the weekend, players finally got to check out how the upcoming shooter runs on Nintendo’s less powerful console. The result? It works and mostly sticks to its framerate target, but it looks ugly, feels rough, and probably won’t be good enough to satisfy most CoD fans.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4‘s recently returned for its second and final beta weekend. This time, however, it was a totally open beta that anyone could download without having to have pre-ordered the game. And this was also the first weekend MW4’s beta, which includes a mission from the campaign, was available to play on Nintendo Switch 2. So, after playing the closed beta previously, I was curious to test it there. How would it compare to Modern Warfare 4 running on a PS5? Unsurprisingly, I discovered the Switch 2 port of Call of Duty ain’t great.
First, the positives. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4‘s multiplayer targets 60 FPS on Switch 2 in both handheld mode and docked gameplay. And while docked, it mostly hits that target. There are some dips here and there, but that’s true of the PS5 version of the game as well, even when it’s running on my PS5 Pro. However, to achieve 60 FPS, a lot of Modern Warfare 4′s visuals and effects had to be considerably dialed back. The end result is a game that looks like a blurry, unstable mess on a TV.
Just standing still and looking out at a multiplayer level while playing the Switch 2 port revealed a shimmering image filled with low-res textures, tiny weird dots, and other ugly visual artifacts. These rougher graphics led to situations where I couldn’t make out whether I spotted a far-off player moving or just some geometry popping in as I moved closer. Or sometimes I’d mistake a cluster of smeared, blurry pixels for a far-off player when it was actually just a box or a door. And when multiple players appeared on my screen at the same time, something that happens a lot in an online PvP shooter, things got even blurrier.
What’s annoying is that all these visual compromises don’t even help MW4 run at 60FPS while playing it handheld. It actually runs noticeably worse, rarely reaching over 45FPS and dropping a lot when explosions are happening or players get close to you. Even the devs behind this port admit that the handheld version of Modern Warfare 4 needs more optimization.
Look, I don’t want to be too mean. Getting a game like Modern Warfare 4, which boasts some of the best-looking visuals I’ve seen all year, running on a Switch 2 is likely a very challenging endeavor. So congrats to the team for getting this game up and running at all and in a playable, if a bit ugly, state. The campaign looks a bit better, but is capped at 30FPS. Still, playing a bombastic CoD level on a Switch 2 via handheld mode on my couch was a wild experience.
So kudos to the team behind the port, and I hope that the full release in October looks and runs even better. That said, I also have to wonder who this is even for?
Modern Warfare 4 on Switch 2 only exists because Xbox promised it
I imagine that a person excited to play Call of Duty in 2026 already owns a PS5, Xbox, or PC. Sure, maybe they also own a Switch 2, but why play on Nintendo’s weaker machine when you could play on PC or PS5 and have a much better-looking experience?
I’m just not convinced there’s a massive audience of Switch 2 owners who don’t own a different console or decent PC who want to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. And to back this up: While playing the beta with crossplay turned on, I rarely encountered Switch 2 players, denoted by an icon in the lobby. It was mostly people playing on other platforms.
It really feels like Modern Warfare 4 only exists on Switch 2 because Activision’s parent company, Xbox/Microsoft, promised regulators that Call of Duty would remain a multiplatform franchise and would even expand to new platforms. This was all part of Xbox’s efforts to buy up Activision and have the deal approved.
And now, after all that has been settled, Xbox is stuck releasing a Switch 2 port of Modern Warfare 4 that I’m not sure many people really want and which will likely be the worst way to play the FPS in October.
