Weekend One is done. The Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Beta went offline at 10:00 AM PT on August 25, and the Open Beta picks it up at 10:00 AM PT on Friday, August 28, running to 10:00 AM PT on Tuesday, September 1. The difference that matters is not the calendar. Weekend One was gated behind a pre-order or a beta code. Weekend Two is not gated at all, and the official platform list now carries a sixth name: Nintendo Switch 2.
Confirmed. Every access fact here is stated directly on the official Call of Duty Open Beta guide: the dates, the six platform names, the no-pre-order rule, and the preload times. The input and crossplay questions further down the page are a separate matter, and those are not confirmed by anyone.
What the official guide states
- The window 10:00 AM PT Friday, August 28 to 10:00 AM PT Tuesday, September 1.
- The gate There is not one. The guide states the beta is available to all players, with no pre-order and no beta code needed.
- The platforms Xbox Series X and S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2.
- Switch 2 was out for Weekend One The guide says plainly that Weekend One access was not available on Switch 2. Friday is the first time those players are in the pool at all.
- Preload Open to every player from 9:00 AM PT on August 26 on all platforms. Switch 2 beta preload and full-game pre-orders opened at 9:00 AM the same day.
- Level cap Weekend One capped progression at Player Level 20. Weekend Two raises it to 30, which is what unlocks the rest of the beta gameplay content.
The official guide labels August 26 as a Wednesday in the general preload line and as a Thursday in the Switch 2 line. August 26 is a Wednesday. Both lines agree on the date, so anchor your prep to the date and ignore the weekday word.
Why Hardcore SnD cares
Every read you built last weekend came out of a lobby that was filtered twice: you had to care enough to pre-order or chase a code, and you had to be on one of three platforms. That filter is gone on Friday. The pool that shows up for Weekend Two is wider, newer, and running on hardware that was not in the test at all four days ago. Anything you concluded about how fast people push, how they hold bomb, or how a lobby behaves in overtime was measured on a different population.
- Re-read the lobby Treat Friday like a fresh sample. The Weekend One field skewed toward players committed enough to pay in early, and the Open Beta field will not.
- Test at the cap, not below it Level 30 is where the rest of the equipment, perks and killstreaks come in. Your Search and Destroy kit is not fully testable until you get there, so grind the levels early and save the real evaluation for later in the weekend.
- Preload now, not Friday morning Preload has been open since Wednesday morning on every platform. A team that downloads at 10:00 AM PT Friday loses the first block of scrim time to a progress bar.
- Log what you see on input Switch 2 players enter the pool for the first time on Friday. If your team keeps notes on anything this weekend, make it this: what the lobbies feel like now that a fourth input family is in them.
What is not confirmed
How Switch 2 actually sits in the matchmaking pool. The official guide lists Switch 2 as a platform and stops there. It does not state whether Switch 2 players are crossplayed into the same lobbies as PC and the other consoles, whether there is a crossplay toggle, or how input is handled. IGN reports that the Switch 2 build carries gyro aiming and Joy-Con mouse controls and that Switch 2 players get Vault Edition content free during the beta, but that is IGN reporting a build's features, not Call of Duty stating a matchmaking rule. A mouse-style input arriving on a console in a shooter that already has a live argument about aim assist is exactly the kind of detail that should be published rather than discovered.
What would verify it
An in-game crossplay or input setting visible in the Open Beta menus that names Switch 2, or an official callofduty.com post or support article stating the crossplay and input-matchmaking rules. Infinity Ward has already said a more detailed update covering spawns, time to kill and movement is coming before Friday. If that post also addresses input, we will update this page. If it does not, the question stays open going into the weekend and we will say so.
The dates are settled. Who you are actually matched against is not.