Modern Warfare 4 now has three release dates - and the disc buyer gets the last one

Three release dates for one game. That is where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has landed after Infinity Ward announced that DMZ, the extraction mode, will open on 20 October for anyone who pre-orders digitally. The campaign unlocks even earlier, on 16 October, and the actual launch - the day multiplayer goes live - is 23 October.

On paper this is a gift. You pay, you play sooner, Activision gets to say it is giving fans "extra action". Infinity Ward also poured cold water on hopes that DMZ would turn into a PvE-only playground, so what you get early is the mode as it is: other squads will be hunting you from day one.

Here's my problem. Read the small print again: digital pre-orders. If you are the type who still walks into a shop and buys the disc - and in our region that is a lot of us - you wait for the real launch like it is 2015. Nobody is taking anything away from you, technically. But a week of exclusive access is exactly the kind of perk that quietly nudges people away from physical.

And physical is still the smart money here. A disc bought from a local or German retailer regularly undercuts the console storefront, it can be lent to a mate, and when the hype dies you can sell it and recover part of the cost. Digital pre-order gives you none of that. You get DMZ three days early and a licence tied to one account forever.

There is a second catch I'd mention to anyone tempted. Pre-ordering a Call of Duty for early access to a mode nobody outside the studio has played at length is a bet on a product you cannot test. Early access to DMZ would be a real selling point if it came with the usual safety net - a refund window, a trial, anything. Instead it is bundled with the one purchase option that is hardest to back out of.

So who is this for? For the crowd that was going to buy digitally at full price anyway, it is a genuinely nice bonus and I won't pretend otherwise. For everyone else, three release dates is just a staggered marketing calendar. The game is out on 23 October. Everything before that is a pre-order incentive wearing a release date as a costume.

Image: mliu92 / CC BY-SA 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xbox_One_Elite_Wireless_Controller_Series_2_(Model_1797).jpg