The last time Call of Duty attempted an extraction shooter, we were living in a world without Arc Raiders in it. The DMZ beta that came with 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 was a valiant first draft, but one that ultimately failed to hook a sizable player base with its shoot, loot, and extract loop. Now the genre’s outlook is seemingly very different, with a boom in player interest thanks to the initial success of Embark Studios’ sci-fi shooter at the back end of 2025. With its popularity not quite where it was some months ago, the jury remains out on whether extraction shooters will ever be able to topple the battle royale anytime soon, if ever. But Infinity Ward is willing to try to find that out for itself with Modern Warfare 4 and its DMZ mode — the studio’s second shot at such an idea.
IGN spoke to Joe Cecot, Modern Warfare 4’s multiplayer creative director, to learn all about why Call of Duty is returning to the extraction shooter, and what was learned from its MW2 beta.
“The group of people that work on DMZ love DMZ, and they loved [the MW2 version]” reveals Cecot. “Even though the beta was very hard to make, we were very proud and happy with what we made, and we learned a lot.”
“We've worked on it for three plus years now,” he continues. “From the moment we finished live support, we moved into the next DMZ, the next big map with Hajin.
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