Activision and Infinity Ward revealed the 2026 Call Of Duty Thursday. Modern Warfare 4 is headed to PC and consoles later this year, and we have the reveal trailer and a bunch of info about the game below. A gameplay trailer plus more details on the return of DMZ, changes to Warzone and more will be landing over the next few weeks.
Watch The ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’ Trailer
As always, a trailer like this can only show so much without giving us gameplay. It looks great from a graphical standpoint, and while the story appears to be more generic military conflict material – this time with a North Korean faction as the apparent villains – at least it’s not Black Ops 7 with its bizarre single-player campaign. I’m curious to see why Price and Ghost are at odds. It might have to do with Soap’s death in Modern Warfare 3, though it’s weird we don’t see his killer, Makarov, here. Apparently he dies early on in the campaign. Perhaps the manner of his death is why Price is on the run.
The campaign includes locations across the globe, including New York, Mumbai, Paris and Korea.
When Is The ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’ Release Date?
Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23 with Season 1 launching shortly thereafter. This is just under a month before the release of GTA 6, assuming Rockstar doesn’t delay that game again. Activision certainly wants to get the game out before a title like Grand Theft Auto.
What Platforms Is ‘Modern Warfare 4’ Coming To?
This is the big and welcome news. Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Call Of Duty in many years to not release on Xbox One or PS4. Infinity Ward is leaving last-gen consoles behind in order to focus on creating something that (hopefully) actually looks current-gen this year. Curiously, the game is also releasing on Nintendo Switch 2, though details about this version remain scarce.
New Maps, Modes And Gameplay
Modern Warfare 4 will launch with a dozen maps, several new Big War maps featuring 32 vs 32 fights as well as vehicles, Gunfight mode with various configurations up to 10 vs 10, which should be quite interesting.
One of the new maps, Kill Block, sounds incredibly unique: The map’s layout is dynamic, shifting between over 500 configurations every round. The map launches as a Gunfight map but will expand to other modes later on.
The new Gunny system let’s players skip the Gunsmith customization if they want, automatically assembling builds based on the type of playstyle they want and the attachments they have unlocked. Loadouts are changing quite a bit as well, with a Create-A-Class system that unifies Operators, weapons, equipment, killstreaks and so forth into a single loadout.
New Apex Attachments add extra flavor to fully-leveled guns.
Meanwhile, players can choose either Regular or Classic Prestige as they level up, with the latter offering the traditional reset experience and granting better bonuses and rewards.
Movement has been updated as well, with Omnimovement removed from the game, though there will be things like backwards slides still available. Mantling has been overhauled, with shimmying along ledges, mantle-canceling and more. It’s being described as faster than MWII, and possibly somewhere between MW19 and MWIII in terms of speed.
Here’s the cover art:
And here’s a pretty cool poster for the game, featuring Price and Ghost:
Some other details I’ve heard reported:
- Map voting will be included.
- A destructible riot shield is coming to the game.
- Ninja is a perk (I had previously heard this wasn’t going to be in the game).
- Theater mode is happening.
- The campaign can be played offline and shaders can compile offline.
- A major UI overhaul with pull-out menus and verticality (goodbye Hulu tiles)
- Other changes to the Call of Duty App.
The Return Of An Expanded DMZ
DMZ first appeared back in Modern Warfare 2 in its “beta” form and was replaced pretty quickly. The extraction shooter returns in Modern Warfare 4, though it appears to be greatly expanded in scope, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives and more. The extraction shooter genre has become incredibly popular with games like Arc Raiders and Bungie’s new Destiny replacement, Marathon, and it seems likely that Activision realized they were missing the boat on this one. Hopefully the DMZ gets more support this time around. It certainly had potential.
A Big Change Is Coming To ‘Warzone’
Modern Warfare 4 isn’t the only game leaving last-gen consoles behind. Warzone will be shutting down on Xbox One and PS4 as well, with the game leaving store platforms for these consoles on June 4 and shutting down entirely when Season 1 integrates Modern Warfare 4. The exact date hasn’t been specified but it will almost certainly be in November.
I think Activision should take this a step further, and stop combining so many games under one banner with Warzone. There are too many guns available. With the launch of a new mainline Call Of Duty, Warzone should vault the older guns and just use the new game’s arsenal. In fact, with the technology and graphics changes coming this year, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to launch a new iteration of Warzone altogether.
The Vault Edition Skins Are Actually Amazing
You can read all about the pre-order benefits for Modern Warfare 4 right here, but I did want to highlight these skins from the Special Forces Operator Pack which comes with the Vault Edition of the game. These each represent a different country (France, Germany, South Korea and the UK) and are quite excellent. You also get the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack:
The Hunter Killer Operator is a pre-order only skin for the Digital Standard or Vault Edition of the game, and will be available instantly in Black Ops 7 and Warzone as well as on Modern Warfare 4 when it releases:
While dates haven’t been announced yet, expect a Modern Warfare 4 beta in the coming months as well. Read more about Modern Warfare 4 at the Call Of Duty blog.
