Modern Warfare 4 revealed as Infinity Ward kickstarts a new chapter for Call of Duty with an ambitious campaign, multiplayer overhaul, and a new extraction experience
Activision has revealed the first Call of Duty 2026 details, confirming the Modern Warfare 4 release date and platform information alongside one of the most compelling launch packages the series has seen this generation. Developer Infinity Ward is back in action with a campaign set across the Korean Peninsula, an ambitious multiplayer offering with a renewed focus on grounded combat, and the return of DMZ – the Call of Duty extraction shooter experience.
The Modern Warfare 4 release date is confirmed for October 23, 2026, with Activision confirming that the new FPS will launch on PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X. Infinity Ward has confirmed that there will be no Modern Warfare 4 PS4 or Xbox One edition, with the studio opting to focus on current-gen hardware as it strives to push the series in a more ambitious direction.
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MW4 will also be the first Call of Duty game to release on a Nintendo platform since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+, Infinity Ward co-studio head Jack O'Hara tells me that "it's been kind of fun to be on a new platform" as he discussed getting Call of Duty running on the hardware and clarified whether the version will share servers with PC, PS5, and Xbox players.
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The Modern Warfare 4 campaign is striving to capture two worlds of armed conflict. Infinity Ward tells me that the game will split its globe-trotting action: you'll follow special operations unit Task Force 141 as they deal with the fallout of the MW3 ending (assassinating an active service U.S. Army General tends to have consequences), as well as a squad of soldiers on the frontlines of a full-scale invasion of South Korea. Infinity Ward believes this divide will deliver "a Campaign that feels both blockbuster in scale and grounded in authenticity."
As for the multiplayer, there's a big focus on returning to the grounded combat that made the Modern Warfare reboot feel so transformative. Omni-Movement returns from Black Ops 6 & 7 in a sense, with the system massively reined in to focus on more fluid transitions around the maps. Infinity Ward is also promising a suite of upgrades to core weapon systems – more precise aiming models, the removal of 'weapon bloom' from hipfire, and other similar overhauls to try and deliver more consistent and predictable gunplay.
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And lastly, Infinity Ward has confirmed that DMZ will return with Modern Warfare 4. This is the Call of Duty extraction shooter experience, "a living combat sandbox where every deployment is a new story." The studio hasn't offered much more detail than that right now, although a studio rep has teased that "conditions in the exclusion zone are always shifting, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces moving throughout the zone."
DMZ was first introduced to the Call of Duty ecosystem back in 2022, arriving in beta form with Modern Warfare 2. It sounds as if the mode has evolved fairly substantially since then, and it'll certainly be interesting to see how DMZ lands in a shooter landscape so thoroughly dominated by the likes of Arc Raiders and Marathon.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter"Business is business; focus on the game"
Mark Grigsby, co-studio head
So that's Modern Warfare 4 in brief. It's clearly an ambitious offering – but then again, it was always going to have to be, given how poorly the back-to-back installments of MW2 into MW3 and BO6 into BO7 were received by the wider Call of Duty playerbase. I should also flag that Modern Warfare 4 will no longer launch day-and-date into any tier of Xbox Game Pass; instead, it'll arrive a year later, due to a change in direction from new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who removed COD from Game Pass to help bring the price of the subscription service down.
I did ask Mark Grigsby, co-studio head of Infinity Ward, whether the decision had any impact on Modern Warfare 4's development or whether the team was just focused on getting the game over the finish line: "Business is business," he told me, "focus on the game."
Modern Warfare 4 is coming to PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X on October 23, 2026. Check out other key releases that are arriving ahead of GTA 6 in our schedule for all the new games of 2026.
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Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.
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