Activision and Infinity Ward have officially announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, the next entry in the long-running shooter franchise. The game is set to launch on October 23 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Pre-orders are now live for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. Switch 2 pre-orders will open later this summer.

Two editions are available at launch:

The Standard Edition is priced at $69.99 and includes the base game along with early beta access and the Hunter Killer Operator Skin, which can be used immediately in Black Ops 7 and Warzone.

The Vault Edition is priced at $99.99 and adds the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack with four skins for Price, Valeria, Ghost, and Blix, a Special Forces pack with skins and local language voice packs for the UK, Germany, France, and South Korea, five signature weapons, one season of BlackCell, and DMZ bonus content. Pre-order bonuses are included here as well.

The game follows two separate storylines. The first puts players in the boots of Private Park, a young South Korean soldier caught in the middle of a North Korean invasion. The second brings back Captain Price, who is now working outside the law on a personal mission for revenge. The two stories eventually collide, and the conflict grows well beyond what either side expected. Missions take place across several locations including Korea, New York, Paris, Mumbai, and other parts of the world.

Modern Warfare 4 is making some notable changes to how the game plays and feels. One of the bigger additions is a system called Ballistic Authority, which reworks how gunplay works. Bloom has been removed entirely, meaning hipfire shots will go exactly where the gun is pointed with no random spread. Recoil and weapon handling have also been rebuilt to feel more responsive to player inputs.

Movement has also been updated, with smoother transitions between running, shooting, and traversal actions like climbing and hanging. The goal is to keep things fast but still grounded. The game launches with 12 core multiplayer maps, each with its own visual style. There will also be Gunfight maps and larger Big War maps for vehicle and infantry combat.

A new map type called Kill Block is also being introduced. It takes place in a training facility and actually changes its layout between rounds, with over 500 possible configurations. It supports 3v3 and 10v10 formats, with more modes planned later. On the progression side, Create-a-Class has been redesigned to bring Operators, weapons, equipment, and Killstreaks into a single loadout. Gunsmith returns with deeper options, and a new feature called Gunny can automatically suggest weapon builds based on your preferred playstyle.

Two Prestige paths are available: Classic Prestige, which resets your loadout progress in exchange for faster XP and exclusive rewards, and Regular Prestige, which lets you keep your unlocks while still earning Prestige rewards.

DMZ returns as an extraction mode where players drop into a conflict zone solo or with a squad to recover military tech and get out alive. The zone has changing weather, shifting objectives, and hostile forces. More details and gameplay footage are set to be shown on June 7.