For more than two decades, Call of Duty betas have followed the same script: drop players into a handful of multiplayer maps, gather feedback, shift some pre-orders. Modern Warfare 4 is tearing that script up. The upcoming beta — beginning 21 August — is the first in the franchise’s history to include a playable campaign mission, a Warzone map, and the full multiplayer suite in a single package.
Infinity Ward and Activision confirmed the news this week, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announcing the move on social media. The official Call of Duty account followed up: “For the first time ever: Multiplayer. Campaign. Call of Duty: Warzone. All in one Beta.”
Entrenched: Playing the Campaign Before Launch
The campaign mission available in the Modern Warfare beta is called Entrenched. It drops players into the middle of North Korea’s invasion of South Korea — a conflict that forms the backbone of Modern Warfare 4’s single-player story. You’ll be controlling a squad of South Korean marines, with one embedded American soldier alongside them, as they push uphill through a punishing offensive.
Expect trenches, armoured personnel carriers, close-quarters shotgun work, and the kind of elaborate, mo-captured brawl sequences that Call of Duty uses to signal “this is a cinematic moment.” It’s a proper look at the campaign — not a tutorial, not a prologue. An actual mission.
“Entrenched” will be playable throughout both beta weekends, meaning players who miss the pre-order window can still sample the campaign in the open phase.
Infinity Ward has published a short teaser for Entrenched on YouTube for those who want a preview before getting hands-on.
Everything Confirmed Across Both Beta Weekends
The Modern Warfare 4 beta runs across two separate windows, with access expanding between them.
Weekend 1 — 21–25 August (pre-order only):
- Campaign mission: Entrenched
- Multiplayer maps: Rooftops, Silkworm, Transit 213, Cachette, Lotus, Kill Block
- Modes: Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, Search & Destroy, Inflation, Kill Block, Mobility Course
Weekend 2 — 28 August–1 September (open to all):
- All Weekend 1 content plus the Lotus map swapped for Lithium
- Zodiac: a new Warzone Resurgence map, making its first-ever appearance in a CoD beta
- Ground War mode and Hijack added
- Nintendo Switch 2 access included
That last point is worth noting: Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Call of Duty to launch simultaneously on Nintendo Switch 2, and the open beta is how players on that platform will get their first taste.
Key dates: Pre-order Early Access: 21–25 August · Open Beta: 28 August–1 September · MW4 full release: 23 October 2026
Why Activision Is Raising the Stakes This Year
The decision to pack this much into a single modern warfare beta isn’t arbitrary. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, released in 2025, was the franchise’s most troubled launch in years — critically divisive and commercially overshadowed by Battlefield 6, which staged a remarkable comeback that won over both critics and players who’d long since written EA’s rival series off.
Activision doesn’t face a direct competitor this October, but the goodwill burned by Black Ops 7 needs rebuilding. Putting a campaign mission, a new Warzone Resurgence map, and a full multiplayer suite in front of players a full two months before launch is the clearest possible signal that Modern Warfare 4 is a different kind of Call of Duty proposition.
Whether that signal translates into a genuinely strong game won’t become clear until October 23, when Modern Warfare 4 hits PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. But as campaign missions go, Entrenched sounds like a decent place to start the argument.
