MW4 Campaign Early Access: Start Date, Editions, Preload

Activision Support lists MW4 Campaign Early Access for Friday 16 October 2026 (PT), for digital Standard and Vault pre-orders or pre-purchases. The full game, with Multiplayer and DMZ, follows on 23 October. This explainer covers who qualifies, platforms, preload dates, and what waits for launch.

Campaign Early Access lets eligible pre-order owners play the full Modern Warfare 4 Campaign a week before the worldwide launch. The game is developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. The Campaign follows Private Park, a young South Korean soldier, alongside a separate thread with Captain Price operating outside his former chain of command. Activision Support gives the start as Friday, October 16 (PT), and the June 12 announcement notes that the start date and platform availability are subject to change. This is separate from the August Open Beta, where one Campaign mission, Entrenched, was playable; see our Call of Duty NEXT and MW4 Beta recap for that.

PC preload is for digital pre-purchasers on Xbox on PC, Battle.net and Steam.

Any digital pre-order or pre-purchase of the Standard Digital Edition or Vault Edition qualifies, on any platform Activision lists. The Vault Edition is digital only and includes the Digital Standard Edition. The June 12 Early Access post names only the digital editions, so the console-only Physical Standard Edition is not listed as having Early Access. Both the Vault and Cross-Gen/Standard tabs on the official play-now page list “Campaign Early Access, Starting October 16”.

Who qualifies for the 10% Vault loyalty discount

Per Activision Support, eligible console and PC players must have owned and played a qualifying title, including qualifying titles claimed and played through PS Plus Monthly Games. Active Game Pass Ultimate, Premium or PC subscribers can qualify by having played a qualifying title through Game Pass. The discount applies to a direct digital Vault pre-order, on the same platform account as the qualifying ownership, and runs until 23 October. Activision’s pre-order post describes the qualifying titles as premium Call of Duty games released since Modern Warfare (2019).

On price: the US PlayStation Store lists MW4 Standard at $69.99 and the Vault Edition at $99.99; Activision’s own pages print no edition prices. The Campaign length is not published, so an hours-to-finish figure cannot be given yet.

The 10% Vault Loyalty Discount applies only when pre-ordering the Vault Edition directly, and only until 23 October — it does not apply to the Standard-to-Vault upgrade path.

Per Activision’s Call of Duty blog, Modern Warfare 4 is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, Steam and Nintendo Switch 2, with no PS4 or Xbox One release. The game will not be on Xbox Game Pass at launch. Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders have been live through the Nintendo eShop since 26 August 2026 for both digital editions. On PC, digital pre-purchasers can preload from 15 October at 9am PT ahead of the 23 October release. No console preload date is published on the Call of Duty pages we checked.

PC checklist before 16 October

• Security: TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required on PC.
• Storage: 115 GB on an SSD, plus space for mandatory updates.
• Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit, Ryzen 5 1400 or Core i5-6600, 8 GB RAM, GTX 970/1060, RX 470 or Arc A580 with 3 GB of video memory.
• Recommended (90 FPS in multiplayer on High): Windows 11, Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i7-8700K, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6600 XT or Arc B580.
• CPU and GPU notes: only Intel and AMD processors with AVX are supported; Intel Arc needs Resizable BAR.
• Drivers and shaders: AMD 26.7.1, NVIDIA 616.56, Intel 32.0.101.8974; Activision advises installing the Xbox PC app on any PC platform so Advanced Shader Delivery can deliver precompiled shaders at install.

All from Activision’s PC tech specs post (29 September 2026), which notes the specs may be updated.

Early Access covers the Campaign only. Multiplayer and DMZ arrive with the full game on 23 October. DMZ progression therefore cannot start during Campaign Early Access. Our MW4 Campaign Completion opens at launch on 23 October; we do not take Campaign orders for the Early Access week. Its Player Level runs from 1 to 70, according to the DMZ deep dive.

Nintendo Switch 2 gets the Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ on the same 23 October date as other platforms.

In the Early Access blog post, the Activision Support editions page and the pre-order benefits post, the following are not stated:

• Whether Early Access Campaign progress, unlocks or rewards carry over to the 23 October launch.
• The exact start time beyond “(PT)” and any per-region schedule.
• Mission count and total Campaign length.
• The contents of the DMZ Deployment Bonus.
• Console preload dates.

Sources and Confidence

This table separates what the studio has confirmed and what is not confirmed yet. Each claim below is tied to the post and the game version it describes.