Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Launch Rollout Adds DMZ Early Access

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has added DMZ to its list of early access experiences available for pre-order players ahead of its launch later this month.

Activision and Infinity Ward revealed a host of new details for its DMZ revamp in a blog post shared today. Early access for the mode joins campaign early access, with both available to those who pre-ordered either the standard or Vault Edition versions of the game across PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and/or Xbox Series X/S.

Here's the full breakdown: Eligible players will gain early access to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign starting Friday, October 16. DMZ early access will then follow Tuesday, October 20, with the full launch unleashing the rest of the experience come Friday, October 23. All of the new details arrived with a new gameplay trailer for DMZ, which you can see below.

DMZ was first introduced as Call of Duty's take on the extraction shooter experience with 2022's Modern Warfare 2. It was expanded upon in the months that followed but was ultimately deemed to be an underwhelming prototype by many. Support ended in late 2023, and now, Activision is taking another swing at it.

The DMZ in Modern Warfare 4 has been propped up as a fully fleshed-out evolution for the game mode. In today's post, Infinity Ward described the new take on the mode as the series' "definitive extraction shooter experience," promising persistent progression in the open-world combat environment known as the Hajin Exclusion Zone.

"There's an interesting story with the DMZ beta, where we had to make some decisions," studio multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot said in a recent behind-the-scenes video (below). "Certain things we wanted to do, we couldn't do. At the end of the day, we learned a lot: That we made a very approachable, fun sandbox that was fun to fight in, to explore, to make friends in, to get into fights in. There's a bunch of stuff we left on the table, so as soon as we finished with the last game, we were just gung-ho on, 'OK, we know what we want to do.'"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23 for PC and consoles. Our first proper look at DMZ gameplay arrived in June, with even more details shared earlier this week. While early access players will get to dive into DMZ and the story mode a few days earlier than others, core multiplayer offerings won't officially launch until that firm release date hits. You can see how the team at Infinity Ward is working to deal with wall-hack cheaters here.