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Modern Warfare 4 Launch Backlash: SBMM, DMZ Revive Costs and Possum. Full Timeline

Timeline of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launch backlash: no Open matchmaking, DMZ rescue costs and the Possum self-revive trait, with Infinity Ward's fixes and Steam scores.

A Axortex ·

TL;DR: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 went live worldwide early, at 09:30 KST on 23 October 2026. The campaign and DMZ early access mostly won praise, and on Steam the full game sits at Very Positive (89% of 3,043 English reviews). Multiplayer is the problem. Every playlist uses the skill-weighted "Standard" matchmaking, with no Open matchmaking option. DMZ players say rescuing a high-level operator costs too much, and the Possum trait, which lets a fully killed player get back up, is being called "broken." Infinity Ward has shipped bug fixes, a server-disconnect fix and a small playlist tweak. So far it has made no change and no statement on any of the three main complaints.

Last updated: 23 October 2026, 20:30 KST.

What happened

Modern Warfare 4 reached players in three stages. Campaign Early Access opened on 16 October (US time) for digital pre-orders. DMZ Early Access followed on 20 October. Full multiplayer started rolling out on 22 October (US time), first in New Zealand, and Infinity Ward then opened it everywhere ahead of schedule.

The campaign is the best-received Call of Duty on Steam in years. The arguments are about three systems that Activision and Infinity Ward had talked about months before launch:

  1. Matchmaking. In July, Activision said Open playlists would be available "in BO7 and the MW4 Beta." It never promised them for launch, and none shipped.
  2. DMZ death and rescue. In June, Infinity Ward revealed a paid "MIA" rescue system. It works as described, but some players now say the price is too steep.
  3. Possum. This DMZ trait lets a player revive into Last Stand after being fully killed. It went viral within a day of DMZ opening.
Timeline graphic of the Modern Warfare 4 launch backlash: 5 June DMZ MIA rescue system revealed; 23 July Call of Duty says Open playlists will be in BO7 and the MW4 beta; 20 August matchmaking data thread; 21 August beta opens and Steam beta reviews slide to Mostly Negative; 16 October campaign early access; 20 October DMZ early access and first Possum clip; 21 to 22 October Possum called broken and DMZ fixes; 22 October multiplayer live in New Zealand with no Open playlists; 23 October live worldwide with no change to SBMM or Possum

Timeline

Date (KST) Event Source
6 Jun 2026 GameSpot reports DMZ's new MIA system: spend in-game cash to rescue a dead operator, and the higher the operator's level, the higher the price GameSpot
23-24 Jul @CallofDuty says the new matchmaking adds "smarter team balancing" and that "Open playlists will continue to be available in BO7 and the MW4 Beta" @CallofDuty, via Vice
20 Aug, 18:06 @CallofDuty thread: in BO7, Open vs Standard saw "32.7% higher quit rates," "59.2% more 'Not Fun' ratings"; says the new system is "not a return to the tighter matchmaking of recent games" @CallofDuty thread; PCGamesN
22 Aug Beta early access opens (11:00 PT, 21 Aug). Steam beta peak: 115,145 players; reviews later slide to Mostly Negative Playnews, SteamRanker
11 Sep IW co-studio head Mark Grigsby: "All Matchmaking info we have at this time is what has been officially stated on the @CallofDuty account." Dexerto
17 Oct Campaign Early Access goes live (16 Oct US) Call of Duty blog
20-21 Oct DMZ Early Access opens; xFleXy_ posts a clip of a "finished" player popping up and killing him Dexerto, PC Gamer
22 Oct JGOD: "Not so sure about the Self Revive from death in DMZ." PC Gamer and Dexerto cover the Possum backlash Dexerto, PC Gamer
22 Oct, 04:02-07:57 @CODUpdates posts DMZ patch notes, investigates camos and reticles deducting DMZ cash, ships "server-side changes" for disconnects; IW posts launch patch notes @CODUpdates, @InfinityWard, callofduty.com
22 Oct, 20:25 CharlieIntel: MW4 MP "currently has no Open Matchmaking playlists," and all use the "Standard" system @charlieINTEL
23 Oct, 00:58 CharlieIntel: "SBMM is cranked up to the max," "a mess for MP so far" (2.1M+ views) @charlieINTEL
23 Oct, ~06:00 GamingBible: DMZ players demand changes after lost progress; revive cost "too high" GamingBible
23 Oct, 07:50 IW minor update: Free-for-All parties of up to 4; DMZ players can steal back UAV Towers @InfinityWard
23 Oct, 09:30 IW: "We're opening things up early. #MW4 is LIVE worldwide!" @InfinityWard
23 Oct, 10:39 @CODUpdates investigating players being kicked while spectating in MP @CODUpdates
23 Oct, 20:20 Steam: Very Positive, 89% of 3,043 English reviews Steam store page

Complaint 1: SBMM everywhere, no Open playlist

Verified. CharlieIntel was first to flag it: "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 MP currently has no Open Matchmaking playlists. All playlists have the 'Standard' system that debuted in the beta." Vice, Insider Gaming and DualShockers all reported the same thing within hours.

Activision had made its case in advance. The 20 August thread said that across 80% of BO7 players, from launch to Season 04, Open matchmaking led to "32.7% higher quit rates," "14.4% fewer kills per minute," "5.3% lower win rates" and "59.2% more 'Not Fun' ratings." It said quit rates on Nuketown 24/7 "jumped 141%." It also defended disbanding lobbies after each match: "About 50% of players leave after the first match." Its line on the system was: "this is not a return to the tighter matchmaking of recent games. Connection remains a top priority."

Players don't buy it. Vice reports "long queue times" and "sweaty lobbies," though it notes the cause is unclear. CharlieIntel's own take reached more than 2.1 million views: "Maps are not that good. Spawns are still broken after beta. And SBMM is cranked up to the max." Low Steam beta scores in August were already pointing the same way. Playnews and SteamRanker's review summaries list aggressive SBMM next to controller aim assist as the main complaints. The beta ended at about 35% positive.

Response so far: none. As of Vice's 22 October report, neither Infinity Ward nor Activision had commented on the missing Open playlists. We found nothing new from @InfinityWard, @CallofDuty or @CODUpdates on matchmaking through the evening of 23 October KST. Before launch, Grigsby had pointed people back to the official account and replied to one player who said they had cancelled their pre-order: "Sorry to hear that, but I respect your decision."

Complaint 2: DMZ deaths, lost progress and rescue costs

Partly verified. The mechanics are confirmed. The "too expensive" part is player opinion, not a published number.

When you die in MW4's DMZ, you lose your equipped weapons, loadout and pack contents, and your operator goes Missing in Action. Back at the FOB you can either pay DMZ Cash to rescue them or dismiss them. A rescue brings back Traits, Trait Points and Dog Tag progress, but not your gear. The price goes up with how far the operator has progressed. Infinity Ward described the system this way back in June, so the rules themselves aren't new.

What changed is how it feels after a few days of play. GamingBible collected the Reddit threads. One player wrote, "I think the cost to revive the operator is too high. I'm broke after dying four times." Another said "having to pay 55000 when you die is ridiculous." That figure comes from a player, and Activision has not published a price table. Others defended it: "It's not supposed to be cheap to revive some high-traits operator." The thread also turned into a request for a PvE-only DMZ and complaints about players camping objectives.

Disconnects make it worse, because losing a run to a server drop feels like a death you didn't earn. @CODUpdates did address this. On 22 October (07:00 KST) it shipped "additional server-side changes to address recent reports of server disconnects." It also looked into a bug where applying camos or reticles in DMZ Gunsmith took DMZ cash, and a bug blocking Prestige on Active Duty Operators.

Response so far: bug fixes, the disconnect fix, and the UAV Tower steal-back change. Nothing on rescue pricing.

Complaint 3: Possum, the trait that undoes a kill

Verified. Possum is the last trait in DMZ's Warfighter tree. In-game it reads: "Allows a self revive into last stand from death, storing health to maximum, once per match." It isn't the normal self-revive from a downed state, which every operator has through the Tourniquet. Possum works after a full kill. PC Gamer says you can reach it "in a handful of matches" if you rush it.

The first clip came from xFleXy_ on X on 20 October (US time): "I kill & finish the guy in the white skin and then he suddenly pops up and kills me???" JGOD followed with "Not so sure about the Self Revive from death in DMZ." ModernWarzone went further: "Possum needs to be reworked or completely removed." A Reddit post quoted by Dexerto complained that the revive makes no noise. The poster asked that it "either take a lot longer or make a really obvious noise."

There's a counter-argument. PC Gamer notes that the revive is slow and that the player still has to stand up from Last Stand. A killer who's watching can finish them off. PC Gamer also suggests Infinity Ward probably meant Possum for playing dead until enemies leave, which is how JGOD demonstrated it. Its proposed fix is the one Hunt: Showdown uses for its Necromancer trait: let players burn bodies.

Response so far: none. Dexerto and PC Gamer both report that Infinity Ward hasn't commented. No Possum change appears in the launch patch notes or in any @CODUpdates post through 23 October KST.

The scoreboard: Steam says the game is fine

The odd part is that this is the best-received Call of Duty on Steam in years.

Bar chart of Steam positive review percentages: Modern Warfare III 48.1 percent, Black Ops 6 45.7 percent, Black Ops 7 38.7 percent, Modern Warfare 4 beta about 35 percent, Modern Warfare 4 full game 89 percent
Title Steam positive Note
MW4 full game 89% (Very Positive, 3,043 English reviews) Steam store, checked 23 Oct 20:20 KST
MW4 full game, 19 Oct 94% of 4,068 total reviews TechSpot; campaign early access only
MW4 Beta ~35% (Mostly Negative, ~21,000 reviews) SteamRanker / SteamyData trackers
Black Ops 7 (2025) 38.7% SteamDB via TechSpot
Black Ops 6 (2024) 45.7% SteamDB via TechSpot
Modern Warfare III (2023) 48.1% SteamDB via TechSpot

Most of those reviews were written during the campaign and DMZ early access windows, before most people had played multiplayer. TechSpot warned on 19 October that the score "could change considerably" once multiplayer opened. That's the number to watch this weekend.

Who is right?

  • Activision's case: It has quit-rate data showing Open lobbies drive players away, and it says connection still comes first.
  • Players' case: The data was never independently checked. The beta (35% on Steam) and the launch reaction show the people who play most dislike the result. Activision's July post only promised Open for the beta.
  • DMZ: Rescue costs that rise with operator level are a deliberate risk-and-reward design. Possum, with no sound cue, looks more like a tuning gap than a design choice. Of the three complaints, it's the one most likely to get a quick tweak.

What to watch

  1. An Open or casual playlist. Vice notes that Activision's July statement promised to keep listening to player feedback. Watch @CODUpdates.
  2. A Possum nerf. That could be a sound cue, a longer revive or a way to deny bodies.
  3. DMZ rescue pricing, plus any protection against losing progress to a disconnect.
  4. Steam's recent-review score once weekend multiplayer reviews come in.

For more launch-and-backlash timelines, see Riot's LoL replay download U-turn, the Valorant cheater-rate dispute between Ardiis and Riot, and our AI decompilation timeline.

One caution: Reddit quotes here come from GamingBible, Dexerto and PC Gamer coverage, and the 55,000 rescue figure is one player's claim, not an official price.

Sources

#call-of-duty#modern-warfare-4#infinity-ward#sbmm#dmz#steam-reviews#gaming-controversy
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