Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 pre-orders now include early DMZ access

In another bid to drive up pre-order numbers for the new Call Of Duty, Activision has suddenly promised early access to the returning DMZ mode.

Given how badly last year’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 was received – enough for Activision to publicly apologise for it – it’s not surprising to see Microsoft and Activision doing all they can to encourage pre-orders of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

The open beta was noticeably more stacked with content and gameplay modes than usual, and Microsoft even briefly offered Xbox gift cards for anyone who pre-ordered the game for Xbox or PC.

Now, with Modern Warfare 4 launching next week, Activision has announced yet another incentive: early access to the game’s extraction shooter mode, DMZ, which wasn’t included in the open beta.

If you pre-order any version of Modern Warfare 4, you can start playing DMZ from October 20, three days before the game’s full launch on October 23.

This is also on top of the pre-order incentive for the early access campaign, which is available from October 16.

Since DMZ is a PvPvE mode, where you compete against each other as well as computer-controlled enemies, you’re getting a headstart against other players as well.

As a reminder, DMZ debuted in 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 but has never been a mainstay of the series. Also, right before it came out, Activision suddenly announced it wasn’t a full release and only a beta test.

With it returning for Modern Warfare 4, presumably as a proper mode and not another beta, Activision clearly wants to give it another go, given the relative popularity of other extraction shooters such as ARC Raiders and Marathon.

Billed as the series’ ‘definitive extraction shooter,’ Activision’s website hypes it up as ‘a living world with unpredictable enemy encounters, weather, and objectives all brought together by meaningful match-to-match progression and inventory systems.’

Activision adds that it has been experimenting with player feedback from the original DMZ beta – as in, the one that launched in 2022 – and promises the mode has evolved into ‘a deeper, more cohesive, and more persistent combat experience shaped by what resonated most with players.’

Based on our own sessions with Modern Warfare 4’s beta, the game certainly needs something to keep players invested. Barring a couple of neat maps and the new Kill Block arena, which changes its layout every round, we weren’t especially impressed with what Activision has shown so far.

Granted, it was never going to meaningfully address the problems with Black Ops 7, since development would’ve been too far along to react to that game’s poor reception, but it’s still likely to have a rough reception from some fans.

Whether or not early access to DMZ will trigger a significant boost in pre-orders remains to be seen, but Microsoft has at least made sure that Xbox Game Pass won’t cannibalise sales.

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