Modern Warfare 2 Xbox, PC beta time, dates, pre-load and patch notes

Call of Duty fans are counting down to the start of the Modern Warfare 2 beta on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation consoles and PC. After an initial beta period exclusive to PlayStation users, the second beta opens up to all platforms. The next Modern Warfare 2 beta has a September 22 release date and a 6pm BST UK launch time. If you’re playing on Xbox or PC, then it’s worth noting that the first two days of the beta are only playable if you’ve pre-ordered the game.

The beta weekend continues at 6pm BST on September 24, when it opens up to all players, even without a pre-order.

It’s even better news for PS4 and PS5 users, who can play for the entire weekend, regardless of pre-order status.

The second Modern Warfare 2 beta weekend ends a few days later at 6pm BST on September 26.

Confusingly, an Xbox Gold subscription is required for the first two days of the beta, but not for the open beta from September 24.

Again, it’s advantage PlayStation, because a PS Plus membership isn’t required to participate in the beta at any point.

If you’re looking to jump in as soon as the beta goes live, then it’s worth pre-loading the beta for your platform of choice. 

Once you’ve installed the game and start playing, you’ll be able to enjoy a selection of game modes, including Team Deathmatch and Domination, as well as Prisoner Rescue and Knockout. It’s possible Infinity Ward will add new game modes and swap out maps over the course of the weekend.

As fans get ready for the second beta weekend, developer Infinity Ward has made some changes to the game, which you can see below.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 second beta patch notes…

• Fixed various crashes

• Addressed a few game-play exploits

• Patched some map geo and lighting issues

• Updated progression for some Gunsmith related bugs

Features being investigated ahead of Modern Warfare 2 launch…

• Mini-Map Dot Rules

 – Currently in the MW2 Beta, we only show enemy player dots when a UAV is active.

 – The design reason for this is that we do not want to punish players for firing their weapons.

 – We also want players to actively search out the origin of a gunshot versus just traveling directly to where the dot is on the mini-map.

 – We continue to gather feedback on how the game is playing in regards to this topic.

• Target Tracking

 – We’ve seen feedback that it is hard to track targets once you get into a firefight.

 – We agree this is an issue and we have changes incoming to reduce muzzle smoke opacity and to increase the visibility of the muzzle flash to help engage someone who is firing.

 – These changes should help with tracking your opponents in combat.

 – We are also investigating more ways to visually differentiate Enemies and Friendlies outside of the standard nameplates above heads of the opposing players.

 – We will be trying a few changes in Weekend Two… more on that later this week.

• User Interface

 – We’ve seen the feedback around difficulty editing perk packages, managing loadouts and accessing the armory.

 – We have identified some UX issues as well as some bugs– these are things we won’t be able to adjust in time for Beta Weekend Two, but they are top of mind ahead of launch.

• Perks

 – We’ve seen varied feedback on the Perk Package system. Some players love it and others feel it’s an unnecessary departure from the original system.

 – We feel it’s a nice shake up to how perks work and to the general progression of a match.

 – We’ve also balanced the ultimate perks to be more powerful as you earn them later in the match.

 – We’ll continue testing throughout Beta Weekend Two, including drastically accelerating the earn rate of these to see how players react.

 – Our goal remains improving the flow of all perks ahead of launch.

 – Dead Silence is another hot topic as many players have expressed that they would like to see it as a Perk instead of a Field Upgrade.

 – We believe it is important to game health that rushers are not able to move at high speeds without consequence.

 – Dead Silence as a Field Upgrade creates a balance between freedom of movement and predictability of combat.

• Footsteps

 – Footstep audio in week one of the MP Beta was very high, giving players long distance directional information about enemies.

 – For Weekend Two we have some changes coming in. We are reducing the range of footstep audio for the various player movement states (jog, sprint and tactical sprint).

 – This will help soften the cost of moving around the map. The second change is that enemy and friendly footsteps are now distinct.

 – This should help players better understand what’s going on as things move around on the battlefield. More details to follow.

• Slides

 – Sentiment around the removal of slide-canceling remains positive. We are aware of the workaround and are contemplating how to handle it for Weekend Two of the beta.

 – Additionally, we have some other slide changes for launch which will make this movement feel a bit more fluid and snappy.