Money Monday: MW4 Is Already Winning, Sega Is Already Losing, and Game Pass Keeps Bleeding

Money Monday – October 19, 2026

Third Monday of October. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign early access is already live and Steam players are calling it the best COD campaign since 2019. The full launch is Thursday. Epic kicked off its Halloween Sale today. Game Pass is bleeding titles. Sega yanked a remaster off shelves because it was embarrassing. Ubisoft is cutting more people. A studio went bankrupt and didn't even pay its employees. And Activision's QA workers voted to authorize a strike. Let's get into it.

🎮 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Campaign Early Access Is Live

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign early access went live October 16 for anyone who pre-ordered. Full launch is October 23 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2. Infinity Ward is back, and the campaign is set across the Korean Peninsula, Paris, New York, and Mumbai. Sixteen missions. Price is hunting whoever's pulling the strings behind a new global invasion.

Early word from Steam players is strong. People are calling this the best COD campaign since Modern Warfare (2019). That's a high bar, and if it holds up through full launch, Infinity Ward just proved they still know how to build a single-player experience when Activision lets them cook.

Big note for Game Pass subscribers: MW4 is NOT on Game Pass at launch. This is a standalone purchase. It won't hit Game Pass until Holiday 2027. That's a shift from what we saw with Black Ops 6, which was a day-one Game Pass title. Activision is betting the COD brand is strong enough to sell at full price even with a subscription service sitting right there. They're probably right.

DMZ early access starts before the full launch too. The new headline multiplayer mode is called Inflation. The game drops last-gen entirely (no PS4, no Xbox One) and launches on Switch 2 for the first time. If you're still on old hardware, this is Activision telling you to upgrade.

💥 Fail of the Week: Sega Pulls Total War: Shogun 2 Remaster

Sega and Creative Assembly pulled the Total War: Shogun 2 remaster from sale. Their words: it "falls short of both your expectations and our own standards." When a publisher voluntarily pulls its own product off the shelf and admits it's not good enough, you know it's bad.

This is a remaster of one of the most beloved strategy games ever made. Shogun 2 is the gold standard for the Total War franchise. The fact that they couldn't get a remaster right is a special kind of failure. You had a finished, polished, well-loved game. All you had to do was make it look better and not break anything. They couldn't manage that.

Credit where it's due: at least they pulled it instead of leaving it up and hoping nobody noticed. That's more self-awareness than most publishers show. But the damage is done. Trust in Creative Assembly has been eroding for years, and this doesn't help.

🛒 Epic Games Store Halloween Sale — Live Now

The Epic Games Store Halloween Sale kicked off today, October 19, and runs through November 2. Up to 80% off horror titles and AAA games.

Some highlights:

• LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight — 30% off

• Resident Evil Requiem — 30% off

• Cronos: The New Dawn — 50% off

• John Carpenter's Toxic Commando — 30% off

• Corsair Cove — 25% off

If you've been waiting on Cronos: The New Dawn, half off is solid for a game that dropped earlier this year. Resident Evil Requiem at 30% off isn't bad either if you missed it at launch. The sale is horror-heavy, obviously, but there's AAA stuff mixed in. Worth a browse if you're on PC.

🎮 Game Pass Update: More Titles Leaving Oct. 31

Game Pass is losing eight more titles on October 31. This is on top of the first wave that already left on October 15, which included Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, last year's GOTY darling.

Leaving October 31:

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

• Deep Rock Galactic

• Wartales

• Dead Static Drive

• Wildgate

• Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

• Full Throttle Remastered

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Losing LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga hurts. That's one of the best LEGO games ever made and a go-to for families. Deep Rock Galactic leaving is rough too. Rock and Stone, miners. If you've been meaning to play either of these, you've got until Halloween.

October is now level with the 2026 record for most Game Pass removals in a single month. Microsoft keeps adding games with one hand and yanking them with the other. The value proposition gets harder to sell when the catalog churns this fast.

⚡ Activision QA Workers Vote to Authorize Strike

The Activision QA United-CWA union voted to authorize a strike, claiming Activision has "failed to bargain in good faith over key issues." This is the QA team. The people who test the games. The people who find the bugs before you do. And they're telling Activision that the negotiating table isn't working.

A strike authorization doesn't mean a strike is happening tomorrow. It means the union membership gave their leadership the green light to call one if negotiations don't improve. It's a pressure move. But it's a pressure move happening right as MW4 is about to launch, which gives it teeth.

Activision has been under the microscope on labor issues for years. Microsoft acquiring them was supposed to change the culture. The QA workers don't seem to think it has.

💀 Studio Down: Liquid Swords Files for Bankruptcy

Liquid Swords, the studio behind Samson, filed for bankruptcy. Staff reportedly went unpaid for two months before the filing. Two months. People showed up to work, did their jobs, and didn't get paid for it. That's not a business failing. That's people getting robbed.

This is the part of the industry that doesn't make headlines until it's too late. A studio quietly runs out of money, leadership knows the ship is sinking, and the employees are the last ones to find out. By the time bankruptcy is filed, the damage is done. These developers now have to find new jobs in an industry that's been laying people off for two straight years.

📰 Quick Hits

• Ubisoft is cutting jobs across Düsseldorf, Berlin, and Mainz as part of a "proposed voluntary departure plan." Voluntary in quotes, because we all know how these go.

• Fishlabs announced layoffs due to "changing project requirements." Another studio trimming headcount while corporate speaks in euphemisms.

• House House (Untitled Goose Game devs) announced they will not release Big Walk on Xbox in support of the pro-Palestinian BDS campaign. Politics in gaming, whether you agree or not.

• Epic Games claims its new "vibe coded" launcher runs 46% faster than Steam from cold start to store page. Bold claim. Let's see if it holds up in the real world.

• Xbox announced Xbox Labs, a new initiative to trial emerging ideas and "new technology." Vague, but Microsoft loves announcing initiatives more than it loves following through on them.

• Rockstar says its next game won't take eight years to make, claiming the engine, tools, and team built during GTA 6 development will let them move faster. We'll believe it when we see it.

🕹️ What's Coming This Week

• Nintendo Switch Sports Resort — Oct 21. Switch 2.

• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves — Oct 22. Switch 2 port.

• Final Fantasy Resonance — Oct 22. Action-RPG expanding the FF universe.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — Oct 23. The big one. PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2.

• ONE PIECE: Grand Gourmet — Oct 23.

• Warrior Cats: Clan of the Forest — Oct 23. Action RPG. PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch, Switch 2.

That's your Monday. MW4 campaign early access is live and people are impressed. Sega embarrassed itself with a botched remaster. Epic wants your Halloween money. Game Pass keeps losing good games. Activision's QA team is ready to walk. Another studio went under without paying its people. Ubisoft is still Ubisoft. And Call of Duty drops Thursday. October keeps pushing. See y'all next Monday.