DMZ for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases early, but Infinity Ward shoots down PvE hopes

In another surprising move for Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4 studio Infinity Ward has announced that the game’s pull shooter mode, DMZ, will be released before the game’s official launch. DMZ will be available starting October 20 for players who pre-order a digital copy.

Modern Warfare 4 now effectively has three release dates. The campaign unlocks on October 16, DMZ four days later on the 20th, and the full launch – when multiplayer will be playable – arrives on October 23.

Although Infinity Ward has previously offered early access to the campaign with other Modern Warfare titles, doing the same for DMZ – a multiplayer mode – is certainly new. It’s a potentially smart move, allowing DMZ to capture streamers and generate excitement for the game ahead of its full-week release, with a big incident every few days. This also allows players curious about DMZ to play it without feeling like they should progress through multiplayer instead.

Since DMZ has its own distinct progression, however, players who jump in early could potentially have an advantage at launch if they manage to accumulate plenty of items, not to mention the map knowledge they would gain from simply spending more time playing.

Separately, Infinity Ward held a Reddit Q&A focused on the DMZ, and the question of a PvE-only playlist was raised. If you’re unfamiliar, a recent first look gameplay video showed an option for the Single Squad mission in DMZ, which players took to mean a mode free from other players. However, the option disappeared in a follow-up trailer, causing confusion. So what’s going on there? Infinity Ward has an explanation, albeit an unconvincing one.

“The playlist you saw is a developer playlist that was never intended for public use, it allows our team to jump into a match alone to work,” the developer responded. “In the expedition game, players choose to go solo by turning off team fill, but it is not guaranteed that there will be only solos in this lobby.”

I’m not convinced. While it’s obviously possible that Single Squad is a developer-only mode, they generally don’t require bespoke icons. It’s also curious that Infinity Ward didn’t blur the image to cover part of it, which is common in these kinds of behind-the-scenes gameplay videos, whenever the camera captures something we’re not supposed to see.

Modern Warfare 4 will officially launch on October 23 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2.