Modern Warfare 4's Open Beta Drops Game Pass Early Access and Locks Switch 2 Out of Weekend One

Modern Warfare 4's beta splits into two weekends, and the fine print changes who gets in early. Weekend one, August 21-25, requires a pre-order on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or PC. Weekend two, August 28 to September 1, opens to everyone on every platform, Switch 2 included, no pre-order needed.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers get no automatic early access this cycle, a reversal from prior Modern Warfare betas where a subscription alone bought a spot in weekend one. Switch 2 owners face a separate gap: pre-orders for that version don't open until August 26, the day after weekend one ends, so no amount of early buying gets a Switch 2 player into the pre-order window at all.

Players get up to 19 weapons, new and returning Operators, and modes running from 3v3 skirmishes to large-scale fights with vehicles. Kill Block headlines the map lineup, the modular Gunfight map that reshuffles its slabs between rounds so the layout rarely repeats. Search & Destroy and a Training Mobility Course round out the mode list. DMZ is absent from this test.

Pre-ordering also buys cosmetics tied to a second game. The Moonlit Pearl weapon camo unlocks instantly with any pre-order, while the Gilded Ruin camo requires earning 5,000 Skulls across Black Ops 7 multiplayer. The first 100,000 players to hit that mark get a uniquely numbered version of the camo.

Activision folded all of this into a recap of Fanatics Fest in New York, where Infinity Ward ran live Kill Block sessions and showed off the Aston Martin Dreadnought concept vehicle. The same event carried the bigger swing: a Call of Duty movie set in the Modern Warfare universe, directed by Peter Berg and dated for June 30, 2028. Activision announced the film alongside the beta details rather than as its own event.

I think the Game Pass change matters more than Activision's framing suggests, since a subscription perk that existed for multiple betas in a row disappearing without a stated reason reads as a quiet tightening of what a subscription buys. The Switch 2 timing gap looks less like a decision and more like a scheduling accident, and I'd expect Activision to patch that hole with some kind of makeup offer once players start pointing out that Switch 2 buyers can't pre-order in time for weekend one no matter how fast they move. Call of Duty: NEXT lands the same day as weekend one, August 21, so expect further beta details, and maybe a fix for the Switch 2 gap, to surface there before launch on October 23.