Activision has officially announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is being led by series creator Infinity Ward. The game is set for release this October, and Activision is surely hoping the game performs better than 2025’s Black Ops 7–that game had the series’ worst sales-year ranking since 2008.
In this post, we’re rounding up everything we’ve heard so far. You can also read GameSpot’s hands-on preview of MW4.
When will Modern Warfare 4 be released?
Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23, 2026. That’s about a month before GTA 6 launches on November 19.
Who is making Modern Warfare 4?
Infinity Ward is leading the development of Modern Warfare 4. The studio created the Call of Duty sub-brand and is working alongside a number of other teams on it.
In alphabetical order, these include Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch.
MW4 trailers
You can check out the announcement trailer for MW4 below.
MW4 platforms
Modern Warfare 4 is coming to all the major modern platforms, including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Switch 2. The Nintendo release is notable given that Call of Duty has been absent from Nintendo’s platforms since 2013’s Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts. Microsoft pledged to bring Call of Duty to Switch as part of its appeal to regulators to approve the company’s blockbuster buyout of Activision, and now it’s finally happening.
The Switch 2 edition is a native version, Activision said. Additionally, the company said the PC version of MW4 is being developed by Beenox and that MW4 in general has been “built with the PC community in mind.” To that end, Activision said PC players can expect “more ways to tune performance, visual fidelity, responsiveness, and customization.”
Modern Warfare 4 won’t be on Game Pass
All of Microsoft’s first-party new releases come to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on day one–or at least that used to be the case. In April this year, Microsoft announced drastic changes to Game Pass that included a price decrease and the announcement that new Call of Duty games will no longer launch into Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass. They will, however, arrive on Game Pass after about a year. What this means for MW4 is that anyone hoping to play it as part of their Game Pass subscription is out of luck and will need to pay for it outright.
Modern Warfare 4 preorders
Preorders for Modern Warfare 4 are not yet open, so there is no word yet on the game’s various editions and their price points.
Modern Warfare 4 story, setting, and characters
As rumored, Modern Warfare 4 centers its action on the Korea peninsula, with players taking on the role of Private Park. He is a young Korean “grunt” soldier who is going to battle for the first time. Park and his team are trying to overcome impossible odds in what Activision described as a “zero-to-hero” journey.
One of the most famous members of Modern Warfare’s Task Force 141, Captain Price, returns for Modern Warfare 4, but he’s no longer part of the team. While the game is centered on Korea, Modern Warfare 4 will put players into battles in various places around the world, including New York, Paris, and Mumbai.
What’s new for multiplayer?
Multiplayer is Call of Duty’s bread and butter, and of course it’s returning for Modern Warfare 4. Activision said players can expect multiplayer that feels “grounded,” which would be in keeping with tradition for the Modern Warfare series. This may be welcome news to those who do not enjoy the futuristic setup in the recent Black Ops games where players can run on walls and use cloaking devices, among other things.
Activision is promising the “most authentic” Modern Warfare gunplay in Modern Warfare 4, with updates coming for bullet trajectory, weapon motion, Operator stance, camera, audio, FOV, and target visibility. Additionally, there is no more weapon bloom for hipfire.
In terms of maps, there will be 12 all-new core 6v6 maps at launch, and that’s notable because some previous Call of Duty games launched with recycled maps from previous games. Beyond the core modes, MW4 has dedicated Gunfight maps and Big War maps featuring vehicles and large-scale battles. There is also a new “Gunny” system for weapon customization, along with new “Apex” attachments that players unlock when they reach max weapon progression.
Open beta
An open beta for MW4 was confirmed by Activision, but there is no word yet on any specifics like what it will include or when it will begin.
The return of DMZ
DMZ was a new mode for 2022’s Modern Warfare II, and while some people enjoyed and embraced it, others said it felt like a half-baked idea. The large-scale extraction-based mode had players amassing contracts, taking on missions, and fighting enemies in a variety of settings. As rumored, DMZ is returning in Modern Warfare 4, but that’s the extent of what we know so far. Presumably more details about DMZ will be divulged later on.
Not expected to outsell GTA 6
The Call of Duty franchise is a juggernaut, but Call of Duty games are not known to outsell new releases from Rockstar Games, and that trend is expected to continue this year with MW4. For example, GTA 5 was the No. 1 best-selling game in the US in 2013, with Call of Duty: Ghosts ranking No. 2. In 2018, when Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption II, the open-world Western outsold Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in the US.
It doesn’t take a Rockstar release to beat Call of Duty any more, though, as 2023 saw Hogwarts Legacy outsell Modern Warfare 3 and 2025 had Battlefield 6 as the No. 1 game, with Black Ops 7 all the way down to No. 5 for the year.
GTA 6 is coming to market with a seemingly unprecedented level of hype behind it, and it’s unthinkable that it wouldn’t be the No. 1 game of 2026.
How Modern Warfare 4 could use AI
Unlike other studios that either do not discuss AI or reject it outright, Activision has freely acknowledged that it uses generative AI to create some content in Call of Duty games. For Black Ops 7, the developer said they also used AI technologies, but also stressed, “Everything that goes into the game is touched by the team a hundred percent.” We do not know anything for certain yet about Modern Warfare 4 and AI, however.
Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on Call of Duty 2026 as more information becomes available.
