ApeX Clan on Modern Warfare 4 and the Future of French Call of Duty
What ApeX Clan Thinks of MW4 Five Days Before Launch
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2. The beta (August 21 to September 1) is over, and digital preorder owners have been playing the campaign in early access since October 16. It is a good moment to hear from people who have followed the series for more than a decade.
Julien leads ApeX Clan, a French clan and content team with channels on YouTube and TikTok. In September he gave a long interview about Warzone, franchise fatigue, fair play, Black Ops 7 and what the new game has to deliver. Below is the useful part of that conversation, with dates current as of 10/18/2026. Every opinion here is Julien's: the view of an experienced player and content creator, not a publisher statement.
The interview matters beyond the clan's own fans. It shows how an active audience approaches a new release: what worries it, what it likes and what it will test in the first days after launch.
Clan as Family: Warzone, Recruitment and Independence
According to Julien, Warzone hurt the clan the most. Many players and viewers left multiplayer for the battle royale and never came back. ApeX kept going anyway, even though clan culture faded in other parts of the Call of Duty community.
In Julien's view, the secret is that ApeX feels more like a family. The clan started running in 2014, Julien joined in 2015, began helping the previous leader in 2019 and then took over. Almost every current member comes from that era.
Recruitment is strict, and getting in is only the start:
many candidates were turned down before joining;
some accepted players were forgotten soon after;
a player who makes history with the clan stays "ApeX" for years.
His line: "The hardest part is being remembered, not getting inside the team." On the future he is calm. Without investors the clan will probably not grow much, and that may be for the best, because viewers watch ApeX precisely for this way of working.
French Community and Older Call of Duty Games
Julien explains what sets French players apart with mutual support: being French is enough to get backed even on topics you know nothing about. Outsiders sometimes read that as arrogance, but he describes it as unity and a wish to win as a country rather than as individuals.
Content trends are interesting. Julien says videos about Black Ops 1 and 2, which the interviewer says landed natively on PS5 in July, have been outperforming coverage of the current Black Ops 7. Viewers play them like new releases and ask for settings and best class setups. The clan helps, as always.
A few more points from the interview:
nobody from ApeX left for Battlefield 6, they simply played less Call of Duty that year;
Julien calls the enthusiasm of the French crowd at a top-level event unmatched;
in his words, Gentle Mates did not win at home but played well, and a home win is a matter of time.
The practical takeaway: content about older games lives long, because players look for concrete help rather than news. Settings, loadouts and mechanics breakdowns stay in demand even when a game is more than ten years old.
Crossplay and Fair Play
ApeX does not publish gameplay investigations often, only when it wants the community to notice something. Julien points to 2019 as the turning point: once crossplay was enabled, anyone can be a suspect, which was not the case before.
His method is simple. Try to explain every in-game decision logically, and if too much cannot be explained, something is probably wrong. He also lists common viewer mistakes:
a streamer glancing aside is usually reading chat, not checking another screen;
there is a huge gap between suspecting someone and proving it;
people jump to conclusions far too early.
Worth keeping in mind when you watch clips with someone else's accusations: a striking moment proves nothing, and one odd detail can have a simple explanation. His quote: "There's a whole world between suspecting someone and demonstrating it."
What Players Expect from MW4: Hip-Fire, Movement and Paris
According to the interviewer, MW4 removes hip-fire bloom, so shots land where the crosshair points. Julien stays cautious: at first he thought it could flatten the skill gap, but extreme bloom did not widen it either. His advice is to play first.
On movement he is of two minds. For competition, he thinks fast, unrestricted play is best, but that is only his taste. The clan is fine with anything that is not dead slow, and for creators very different movement every year is a plus.
Topic | Julien's position |
|---|---|
Hip-fire without bloom | Too early to judge, needs playtime |
Speed and movement | Fast is best for competition, the clan accepts anything not too slow |
Paris map | Hopes it matches Resistance |
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) | The main threat to the game |
He also recalled the Resistance map from the 2011 Modern Warfare 3. In his words it was one of that game's best maps and the only French-set Call of Duty map he can remember. The hope is simple: the French map in MW4 should be just as good.
Franchise Fatigue and Release Schedule
The harshest verdict in the interview is about the calendar. Back-to-back releases of MW2 and MW3, then BO6 and BO7, Julien calls a catastrophic idea. He considers MW3 and BO7 great games that came out at the worst possible time. Based on the sales rankings cited in the interview, Black Ops 7 finished 2025 fifth in the US, with Battlefield 6 first.
His conclusion: the series does not need the best game, it needs a new one that differs from the previous release. Otherwise interest fades. A two-year cycle can work if quality and content are on point, but he admits he does not fully trust the developers on that.
His biggest worry about MW4 is SBMM. In his video "Les 5 gros problèmes de MW4" he puts matchmaking first and says it could ruin the game for everyone.
What to Do Before October 23
Until MW4 arrives, Black Ops 7 is in Season 6, live since September 17. It is a handy window to finish what is left. If you would rather not spend the time, you can order Leveling in BO7 or a Prestige run. For a favorite gun there is Weapon Leveling, and the story missions are covered by the Campaign service.
If Julien's talk made you want to return to MW3, DVING offers the Modern Warfare 3 Campaign and Account Leveling. For practice before launch, MW3 Coaching may help.
Another way to prepare is to choose which questions you will check first in MW4. The interview gives a short list: how hip-fire works, how fast the movement is, how good the French map turns out and how matchmaking behaves. Taking notes on each point during the first evenings gives you your own opinion by the end of the week, independent of anyone's forecast.
Julien's takes are a good reference, but after October 23 your own matches will decide.