Modern Warfare 4 beta includes a campaign mission, Switch 2 support, and background shader compilation

Activision has unveiled the details for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's open beta, which is set to begin on August 21. This beta marks several firsts, including the inclusion of a campaign mission and Nintendo Switch 2 support. The mission, titled "Entrenched," takes place in snowy trench warfare, featuring players as a South Korean soldier during a modern-day North Korean invasion.

The beta will be accessible to customers who pre-order the game from August 21 to August 25 on various platforms, including Steam, Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Pre-loads commence at noon on August 20, with the open beta following from August 28 to September 1. This later phase will introduce two Ground War maps, a Warzone map, and support for Nintendo Switch 2.

Interestingly, the beta system requirements mirror those of last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, indicating that the game is designed to run on aging hardware. Even the recommended specs are relatively modest, requiring either an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti with 8GB of VRAM. Importantly, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are mandatory for the beta.

To enhance the user experience, the beta includes a feature that compiles shaders in the background during the initial boot-up, minimizing wait times. For PC users, this process can be initiated via a Windows system tray notification. Steam users will also experience pre-compilation of additional shaders briefly after boot-up, while Battle.net handles the entire process in the background, consuming minimal system resources.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for release on October 23 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Battle.net, Steam, and Nintendo Switch 2.