Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is getting a new mode called Collateral, and anyone who has put time into Counter-Strike or Valorant will recognise it right away.
It's a round-based twist on Search and Destroy, with teams swapping between attacking and defending two bomb sites. The difference is the money. Everyone starts with a pistol and earns cash through kills and objective play, then spends it between rounds on armor, perks, grenades, riot shields, shotguns, rifles, and more.
A UAV is on the list too, but only as a team purchase. When you die, you lose your gear, though the cash stays with you. Respawns, killstreaks, health regeneration and custom loadouts are all switched off, so every purchase carries some weight.
Activision hasn't exactly pushed this one out the front door. The reveal sat near the end of a blog post about the game's PC features, which is pretty odd since this sounds like an interesting multiplayer addition. Insider Gaming reports Activision describing it as PC-only, but the game itself launches on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and PC on October 23.
This isn't the series' first go at the idea. Black Ops 4 had Heist back in 2018, and MW4 will also have Inflation, a cash-based Team Deathmatch-style mode that showed up in last month's beta. Collateral is the closest Call of Duty has come to the real thing, though, and it's hard not to think about esports. The Call of Duty League has been cycling through modes, with Control mostly disliked and then swapped for Overload, which doesn't suit a boots-on-the-ground game.
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Will Collateral be playable on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, or is the mode PC-only?
What additional rules determine round wins and the match winner in Collateral?
Will Collateral be available in the Modern Warfare 4 beta or only after launch?
How does Collateral differ from Search and Destroy beyond its between-round purchasing?
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It all lands in a week where Activision has been saying the right things, from a skin toggle to changes to double XP tokens.
