Prepare to go dark, Modern Warfare is back!

The stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal Tier One operators in a heart-racing saga that will affect the global balance of power.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will make its return in a powerful experience reimagined from the ground-up, engulfing players in a modern-day conflict, where split-second decisions could affect the global balance of power.

In the visceral and dramatic single-player story campaign, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare pushes boundaries and breaks rules the way only Modern Warfare can. Players will engage in breathtaking covert operations alongside a diverse cast of international special forces throughout iconic European cities and volatile expanses of the Middle East.

And the story doesn’t end there.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players will be thrust into an immersive narrative spanning the entire game. Players can experience the ultimate online playground with classic multiplayer or squad-up and play cooperatively in a collection of elite operations, accessible to all skill levels.

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Open Crossplay Beta starts this Thursday! For the first time ever, Call of Duty players can play together across PS4, Xbox One and PC!

The introduction of crossplay in Modern Warfare when it launches next month on October 25th is only one example of how Call of Duty is uniting the community in the ultimate multiplayer playground. We’ll also see the removal of Season Pass along with plans to release free maps and content post-launch. 

With crossplay, developer Infinity Ward is ensuring players can experience together the badass fun of Call of Duty multiplayer regardless of system. This weekend’s Crossplay Open Beta will provide not only a great opportunity for gamers to have a blast together, but also provide developers important feedback as they polish for worldwide release next month. 

How does Crossplay work? Here’s some helpful information you’ll need as you enjoy the Crossplay Open Beta.

1. You can Opt in, or Opt out:

In Modern Warfare, players can choose to enable crossplay, allowing players to play with friends on all three supported platforms, so the game offers an opt-in choice. 

2. A COD Account is Needed:

Remember, you will need a COD Account to play Modern Warfare, if you don’t have one already you can create one here.

3. Matchmaking and Balancing:

In Modern Warfare, crossplay has been designed to factor play balancing across differences in controller type. No one should feel an unfair advantage. Plus, players have choices on which control device they wish to use on any platform. Here are some examples you may experience:

• You can decide to use keyboard and mouse on PlayStation® 4 or Xbox One.
• You can decide to use a controller on PC.
• PS4, Xbox One, and PC players can all play against each other, provided they all utilize controllers, or all utilize KBM (a keyboard and mouse).
• You can place into a lobby where there are no control scheme filters, allowing you to play with players using both controllers and/or KBM across up to all three supported platforms.

Plus, with the addition of crossplay, we anticipate that players should look forward to even shorter lobby wait times.

4. Adding your Friends and Gathering Parties:

Using your COD Account, you are able to create cross-platform Friends lists and Parties from all three supported platforms. This unites the community by removing barriers, creating platform-agnostic friend groups. Are you a PS4 player with friends on Xbox One and PC, for example? Now you can organize parties and jump into matches with your friends, easily and quickly regardless of platform!

5. Crossplay Applicable Modes:

Crossplay supports all multiplayer modes in Modern Warfare. There are no plans currently to support Ranked Play or competitive tournaments.

Following the launch of Modern Warfare next month, the team has worked to ensure that content will be released in a way that enables all players to continue to seamlessly play together. Most Post-launch gameplay content, including new multiplayer maps, new multiplayer modes, special ops missions and more will release simultaneously across all platforms.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a new engine delivering an immersive and photo-realistic experience. The new technology utilizes the latest advancements in visual engineering, including a physically-based material system allowing for state of the art photogrammetry, a new hybrid tile based streaming system, new PBR decal rendering system, world volumetric lighting, 4K HDR, DirectX Raytracing (PC) and more as well as a new GPU geometry pipeline. Spectral rendering delivers thermal heat radiation and infrared identification for both thermal and night-vision in-game imaging. The technical investment provides a cutting edge animation and blend shape system, while the new suite of audio tools supports full Dolby ATMOS, on supported platforms, along with the latest in audio simulation effects.

Modern Warfare multiplayer delivers a thrilling and game-changing online experience with best-in-class down the barrel gameplay, along with an all-new level of strategic and tactical play. Players can jump into new play spaces that redefine Call of Duty multiplayer, from quick-action, close-quarters 2 vs. 2 experiences in Gunfight, traditional 6 vs. 6 multiplayer gameplay, modes that support 10 vs. 10 and 20 vs. 20 firefights, along with high-player count maps and combat, such as the all-new Ground War, an epic large-scale mode supporting more than 100-players. And, that’s just the beginning for Modern Warfare fans.

With a complete weapon overhaul and the most choices in Call of Duty history, players will be able to outfit their multiplayer operators for every combat encounter, with unprecedented customization and modifiability in the new Gunsmith system. Modern Warfare features cutting-edge visuals, authentic sound design, with realistic recoil and weapon ballistics throughout the game. In addition, gameplay mechanics, including bullet penetration, gun mounting, door breaching and night vision multiplayer gameplay maps featuring night vision goggles (NVGs), allow for an amazing tactical experience.

Activision also confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have no season pass, and that it will feature cross play between Xbox One, PS4 and PC platforms.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a fully-optimized PC version, developed in partnership with Beenox, which will be available exclusively on Blizzard Battle.net

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is scheduled for release globally October 25th on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.