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Activision has decided it wants back in on the extraction shooter action, which is no surprise given the meteoric rise of the genre following the success of Arc Raiders, Marathon, and Escape from Tarkov escaping from early access. Modern Warfare 4 will herald the return of DMZ, which developer Infinity Ward describes as being "the definitive Call of Duty extraction experience."
Details are light on the ground right now, but here's the high-level description to give you a sense of what Modern Warfare is shooting for here:
"DMZ is the definitive Call of Duty extraction experience, a living combat sandbox where every deployment is a new story. Deploy solo or with a squad into a volatile conflict zone as an off-the-books asset tasked with recovering advanced military technology left in the wake of war. The conditions in the exclusion zone are always shifting, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces moving throughout the zone."
"Loot, fight, negotiate, betray, and extract with whatever you can carry," the product description continues. "The harder you push, the harder the world pushes back. Every run is a risk, every encounter a choice, and no two deployments play out the same way."
It's an intriguing tease of the Modern Warfare 4 DMZ offering, which is expected to launch as part of the package on October 23, 2026, for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X alongside an ambitious campaign and overhauled multiplayer experience.
This isn't the first time that Activision or Call of Duty has played in the extraction shooter space. Infinity Ward was actually experimenting in the genre pretty early on, with a beta version of DMZ arriving as part of Modern Warfare 2 in 2022.
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While I didn't really touch on it at the time, I remember playing a fair amount of the DMZ beta for my Modern Warfare 2 review, and I just didn't really get it. Not the creative ambition mind, but the genre at large – Escape from Tarkov was no friend of mine, and I'd had varied experiences with the Dark Zone elements of The Division and Crytek's Hunt: Showdown.
Still, Infinity Ward has teased that it learned a lot from the process – and is readying to land a more complete extraction shooter experience shaped by feedback, experience, and new systems. It's unclear when Activision will pull the curtain back on DMZ in Modern Warfare 4 – or how it'll land in the extraction shooter market alongside rivals like Arc Raiders and Marathon – but with Xbox Games Showcase right around the corner as part of the Summer Game Fest 2026 schedule, perhaps we won't have to wait long to learn more.
Modern Warfare 4 is coming to PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X on October 23, 2026. Check out other key releases that are arriving ahead of GTA 6 in our schedule for all the new games of 2026.
