The original plan was to seemingly launch on the new console alongside Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6 and compete with the game for player attention. However, with the console itself rumored to be delayed thanks to global memory shortages, new plans have apparently been drawn up that revolve around two separate Call of Duty games being made for the next Xbox. Comparisons were drawn with the release of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. This also indicates that we might see a standalone release of the franchise’s Zombies mode alongside a standard multiplayer release.

“Sources indicate to me that the delay on the next Xbox has ‘hurt’ a lot of COD’s marketing plans as they wanted Modern Warfare 4 to be a launch title and draw a lot of hype to compete with people’s attention alongside GTA VI,” wrote the leaker on social media.

“Because of this delay, the idea of two Call of Duty games launching with the next Xbox has been floated. A traditional Call of Duty multiplayer and a standalone Zombies title presumably developed by Treyarch. Likely similar to that of Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered were both released together.”

As for Activision’s wider business plans, the leaker has also reported that Microsoft wants the company to be “more agile”, and less devoted to its yearly release schedule for the Call of Duty franchise. In terms of software development, being agile means having a clearly-defined project development pipeline that can quickly pivot to new ideas. This, according to TheGhostOfHope, would have apparently allowed Activision to have a more competent version of the Call of Duty: DMZ mode to cash in on the hype around extraction shooters than what we ultimately got.

“Microsoft wants Activision to be more agile and less attached to annualized releases in the future. The consensus is that a more quick and coherent product/development pipeline would have allowed them to cash in on the extraction shooter hype sooner with a DMZ update for example.”

It is worth noting that, going by other rumors surrounding next-generation consoles, the timelines don’t quite match up precisely. Before RAM prices skyrocketed, leading to several hardware delays, reports had indicated that Sony and Microsoft were eyeing a 2027 launch for their respective next-gen consoles. Considering previous PlayStations and Xboxes having come out in Winter, in time for the Holiday season, it is likely that even the PS6 and next Xbox would have come out around November in 2027, which would have been a full year after the initial launch of Grand Theft Auto 6—out on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th this year. The leaker could, however, be referring to the next-gen launch of GTA 6.

Activision had also announced back in December that it was moving away from back-to-back releases for sub-series in the overarching Call of Duty franchise. This means that, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 being the latest game, the next one wouldn’t be from the Black Ops series. Similarly, the next Modern Warfare won’t be followed by another one.

As caught by Insider Gaming, this comes from TheGhostOfHope, who has in the past proven to be reliable with leaks about the franchise. “Modern Warfare 4 Multiplayer in its current state is currently a complete copy of Modern Warfare II except for no perk charging system and less ADS/slide penalties,” they wrote on social media.

“There is A TON of visual recoil on weapons in Modern Warfare 4 just like Modern Warfare II. Like I said in my last tweet it’s pretty much a complete copy outside of a few little things.”

While Infinity Ward hasn’t made any concrete statements regarding the matter, the studio also took to social media to wish its fans happy holidays. Along with this, the studio wrote that Call of Duty fans shouldn’t believe everything they read on the Internet, before signing off from social media for the rest of the year.

‘Happy holidays everybody! Wishing our community an awesome holiday season and looking forward to talking soon,” wrote Infinity Ward. “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. See you in 2026.”

In response to Infinity Ward’s statement, TheGhostOfHope wrote yet another post where he said that the studio typically hasn’t responded to these leaks in the past. The fact that it has gone out of its way to try and “generically deny” two recent leaks, notes the leaker, “should raise some red flags”. Further, TheGhostOfHope also wrote that they still have the same sources they had with their previous leaks regarding games like Modern Warfare 2 and 3, and Black Ops 6 and 7.

“The fact that a billion dollar studio has gone out of its way to *generically* deny 2 of my most recent leaks when they’ve never done it before nor towards others is frankly very weird and should raise some red flags about why they’d do such a thing when they never did it before. I have largely kept the same sources for years and my MW4 leak is no different to that. I would never sink my reputation with COD leaking that I’ve built over the years on faulty unverified info,” wrote the leaker.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S just last month. For more details, take a look at our review. Also check out Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty noting that it has been “one of the most-played games on Xbox”.

As for the future of the franchise, you can check out what analysts have had to say about the performance of Black Ops 7, and our own thoughts about its current state and what might happen with future releases.

Interestingly, despite criticism lobbed against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) for its short campaign and only having remastered Modern Warfare 2 (2009) maps for its core multiplayer playlists, it allegedly did “tremendously well.” A release window wasn’t specified for the next instalment, though it could arrive in 2026, if only because of the Black Ops titles scheduled for the next two years.

As for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it’s developed by Sledgehammer Games and available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review, where we awarded it a 5 out of 10 for its terrible campaign, fun Zombies mode, and endearing but problematic multiplayer. Reports claim that the campaign was developed in a mere 16 months, though Sledgehammer denied the same.

That’s according to Call of Duty narrative director Brian Bloom, who said in a recent interview with The Washington Post that the rebooted series has a lot of stories and character arcs still left to cover, and that even with three games under its belt, it’s “just getting started”.

“We think of character arcs as going one way, but they can also fall off their arc, they can go backwards, people can evolve and devolve,” Bloom said. “All these things, they offer rich, fertile ground to tell stories, and that’s not going to stop. In fact, I would say we’re just getting started.”

Activision recently unveiled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in full, detailing the experience’s three main components and their biggest headlining features, including the multiplayer and its remastered maps, the single player campaign and its “Open Combat” missions, and a new open world PvE extraction take on the fan-favourite Zombies mode.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Infinity Ward’s 2019 Call of Duty title has long been in the rumour mill. Suggestions that it will be a new Modern Warfare installment have been made aplenty, and there’s been plenty of evidence since to back them up. As per new (unofficial) information, though Call of Duty 2019 is indeed going to be a new Modern Warfare game, it won’t be Modern Warfare 4.

No, apparently, it’s going to be called simply Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. As the name might have given away, Infinity Ward and Activision are treating the game as a reset of sorts- a soft reboot, to be more precise. Whether they’re softly rebooting Modern Warfare, or Call of Duty as a whole, remains to be seen.

The report first arose with YouTuber LongSensation mentioning the game’s name on Twitter. Kotaku’s Jason Schreier then followed up on the tweet, confirming himself that the report’s true, and that it’s going to be a soft reboot.

Call of Duty 2019 will be revealed soon, as per Activision, while the game will also be the centerpiece of an E3 Coliseum panel, so there isn’t not long left until we find out for sure one way or another.

Meanwhile, moving beyond 2019 and into the next year, it looks like Call of Duty 2020 is in a state of upheaval, with Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software reportedly having been taken off as lead developers, and the reigns having been handed back to Treyarch. Read more about that through here.

I can confirm this is true, and that it's hilarious. The first one was "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" so obviously the fourth one is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." Video games are absurd https://t.co/Ghb1m2srC4

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 24, 2019

"Soft reboot"

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 24, 2019

Infinity Ward are in line to deliver this year’s Call of Duty title, which is something we’ve been hearing more and more of lately. Activision has promised that whatever it is is going to bring “game-changing experiences” to fans of the series, while recent reports have suggested that the game’s going to be a continuation of the fan-favourite Modern Warfare series. Now, there’s more new info that also suggests that this year’s Call of Duty is indeed going to be Modern Warfare 4.

Multiple former Infinity Ward employees who were crucial to the development of the Modern Warfare titles seem to be back at the studio (via GameSpot). Zied Rieke was lead designer on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and had been at Infinity Ward for twelve years when he left in 2010- he’s been back at the studio since 2017 and is acting as gameplay director on their current project. Joe Emslie was the lead character artist at the studio for six years up until 2010, and has been the studio art director since February 2017.

Geoffrey Smith used to be a designer at the studio and made nineteen multiplayer maps for Infinity Ward between 2005 and 2010. He’s been acting as multiplayer design director since 2017. Then there’s Alex Roycewicz, who was a level designer at the studio up until 2010, and has been a senior designer since rejoining in 2018. Finally, there’s Mark Grigsby, who was lead animator on both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, and returned as the Animation Director in June of 2017.

Of course, none of this definitively means that Infinity Ward is working on Modern Warfare 4. After Vince Zampella and Jason West left the studio after their falling out with Activision and formed Respawn Entertainment, Infinity Ward faced a mass exodus- all five of the aforementioned names, for instance, left the studio to join Respawn in 2010. Since then, Infinity Wards’ Call of Duty titles have come under a lot of fire- so it’s entirely possible that they’re just looking to bring back some of the old talent to make sure that their next game does well. It’s also possible, however, that they want people who’re familiar with the Modern Warfare games as they attempt to bring the subseries back.

One way or another, we should find out how much truth there is to all the speculation sooner rather than later. Activision have confirmed that Call of Duty 2019 will be revealed very soon, while an E3 Coliseum panel dedicated to the title has also been announced. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates.

While Black Ops has become the flagship Call of Duty brand in the last few years, once upon a time, it was the Modern Warfare games, courtesy of Infinity Ward, that led to the series breaking out and becoming popular. Infinity Ward saw an exodus of talent when founders Vince Zampella and Jason West left after disputed with Activision. They would go on to form Respawn, and work with EA on Titanfall– but Infinity Ward was never the same again, and its games that have come since, Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts, and Infinite Warfare, have all been extremely disappointing.

However, the studio may be looking at returning to the brand that made it, and really, Call of Duty, so beloved to begin with. Apparently, longtime Call of Duty voice actor Craig Fairbrass recently listed Modern Warfare 4 in his Twitter bio- he would go to remove that, and issue a clarification, but it seems that where there is smoke, there is fire. Matthew Harris of Gaming Intel, as well as the folks at Charlie Intel, confirm that Modern Warfare 4 is in the works at Infinity Ward for next year- not just that, but it sounds like a lot of folks from Respawn have been heading back over to Infinity Ward of late, too- which seems to indicate that the folks behind the beloved original Modern Warfare games may in fact be the ones bringing us the next one in the series.

For now, this is only a rumor- but if it does turn out to be true, how exciting would it be?

Sledgehammer Games has the ball this year to bring Call of Duty to both next gen and current gen platforms, and according to co-founder Glen Schofield at GDC, it will be the “most ambitious, most creative game we’ve ever made”.

You’d probably ask what Sledgehammer has even made to be able to top Call of Duty, considering that they’ve been working only on this single game for the past several years. But given that the studio’s founders created Dead Space, the above words carry even more weight. The question is: Will they be able to surpass expectations after the lackluster critical response to Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts?

There have been rumours that Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty could be the follow-up to Modern Warfare, tentatively titled “Modern Warfare 4”. There have been some map asset leaks till now but nothing overtly confirmed. E3 2014 sounds like a good place for more information, so stay tuned.

(Source)

If you thought Sledgehammer Games would reinvent the wheel come time for Call of Duty 2014’s release, then YouTube user Drift0r has news for you. After successfully showcasing details about Call of Duty: Ghosts ahead of its first-time reveal, he now claims that an insider from the studio has sent him assets and game files for Sledgehammer’s next release. He also believes this next game in the series will be a new Modern Warfare game.

The files showcased “some sort of power plant” with turbines, multiple floors and a helipad, and that everything showcased thus far has been uniquely created. Drift0r believes that this new Modern Warfare will be set in the near future and even talks about a Titanfall-like weapon. The protagonist also has a wrist device like that seen in Black Ops 2 which relayed information and communication besides controlling drones.

Drift0r also says that a source at the Destination PlayStation event held by Sony confirmed that Modern Warfare 4 was in development. It’s worth taking that last bit with a touch of salt but hey, it wouldn’t be beyond Activision to revisit one of its more successful Call of Duty titles.

“With the storyline, we knew that we wanted to end the Modern Warfare franchise, and we wanted to go in a new direction.”

When asked if there would be another Modern Warfare, Palacios responded, “I can say that our focus and only focus is on Ghosts right now as it is, and we have no other plans at this time. When we were creating Ghosts, we really got inspired by Ghost from Modern Warfare 2, just by how he looks.

“It made sense for these soldiers we have in Ghosts who want to hide their identities would have the same masks and face paint. I think it would be safe for me to say that just knowing the characters from our previous games didn’t have a backstory, that’s what really pushed us forward. We thought we need to really establish that.”

Call of Duty: Ghosts arrives on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC on November 5th. Next gen versions will be out on November 15th/29th in North America/Europe for PS4 and November 22nd on Xbox One.