Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the twenty-third installment in the Call of Duty series and the fourth entry in the rebooted Modern Warfare sub-series, following Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023). It is set to be released on October 23, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.
Gameplay Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will be a first-person shooter video game. It will comprise three main game modes: a single-player campaign mode; a competitive multiplayer component; and the extraction shooter mode "DMZ", returning from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022). Modern Warfare 4s campaign will have a focus on a war between North and South Korea. In addition to Korea, missions will also take place in various locations such as New York, Paris, and Mumbai.
The multiplayer mode is set to feature 12 core 6v6 maps at launch, accompanied by returning game modes such as "Gunfight" with a dedicated map pool, and "Big War" featuring large-scale maps. A new map, "Kill Block", features dynamic layouts that constantly change as the match progresses, with over 500 different possible configurations. One of the major changes to the gameplay system is the removal of hipfire bloom, a mechanic that penalizes players by reducing accuracy of shots when firing their weapons from the hip. Updates to the movement system include the ability to hang and shimmy along edges and pipes.
In DMZ, 20 squads of up to three players deploy into a large-scale map, dubbed the "exclusion zone", where they scavenge for loot and complete objectives before attempting to exfiltrate. Players can pursue story missions, which are a set of narrative-focused tasks; Dynamic Operations, which are randomly-generated objectives that differ each match; or simply freely roam the map. While exploring, players can encounter and fight against hostile NPCs as well as other players. Killing other players results in the player's notoriety level increasing, marking their presence on the map for other players to find. A new feature in DMZ is the Forward Operating Base (FOB), an in-game hub where players prepare their gear before deployment, including setting up their loadouts, crafting items and interacting with vendors. Players can also gain permanent progression for their Operators via individual "trait trees", granting skills and bonuses that cater to specific play styles. Additionally, the playable map features dynamic weather effects, such as rain and snow, which intensify as the match progresses.
Premise Campaign Modern Warfare 4s story is centered on two protagonists: Private Park Hyun-Jun (Young Mazino), a South Korean Marine recruit who fights alongside his squad "Sierra-1" to protect his home, as an invasion of the Korean Peninsula by the Korean People's Army (KPA) threatens to destabilize the world; and Captain John Price (Barry Sloane), the former leader of Task Force 141 who is on the run following his assassination of United States General Herschel Shepherd. As Park and Price each deal with their own conflict, another threat looms as a powerful weapon is being delivered to a mysterious individual known as "the Archer" (Mads Mikkelsen). Other characters featured in the story include: Sergeant So Jae-Woo (Jae Kim), Private First Class Han "Chow" Cho (Joon Lee), Private First Class Yun Jong-Moon (Daniel J. Kim), and Kwon "Kal" Hae-Soo (Joseph Lee), Park's squad mates in Sierra-1; First Lieutenant Reggie West (Luke Tennie) and Corporal Joseph Dunn (William Lipton), two United States Marines stationed in Korea serving with Sierra-1; Ri Ju-Young (Prisca Kim), a commander in the KPA; Ri Seung-Ho (Jeongmin Cho), the new Supreme Leader of North Korea and Ju-Young's brother; Ko Jin-Hyuk (Lanny Joon), a high-ranking KPA member; Valeria Garza (María Elisa Camargo), the leader of the Las Almas Cartel and former enemy of Task Force 141 who is allied with Price; Simon "Ghost" Riley (Samuel Roukin) and Kyle "Gaz" Garrick (Elliot Knight), former Task Force 141 operatives who are forced to hunt down Price; and Kate Laswell (Rya Kihlstedt), Price's former CIA handler who remains in contact with him.
DMZ DMZ takes place after the events of the Modern Warfare 4 campaign, where operators are deployed to Hajin, a South Korean exclusion zone that also borders with Russia and North Korea, in order to recover abandoned technologies and weapons following a nuclear reactor meltdown.
Development Development on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is led by Infinity Ward with assistance from 10 additional studios, including Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software.
Modern Warfare 4s setting on the Korean Peninsula with a renewed conflict between North and South Korea evokes the real world Korean War between the two states, which has been at an armistice since 1953 without an official conclusion. South Korean journalist Hyeonju Song said that "creating fiction based on it is bound to cause pain to someone" as "separated families who were torn apart by the war are still alive". Infinity Ward co-studio head Jack O'Hara said the studio worked to portray the region as respectfully as possible. They consulted regional specialists, defectors from North Korea and Infinity Ward's own Korean employees. Infinity Ward were interested in the setting as they had not portrayed Asia at scale in a Modern Warfare game. Narrative director Jeff Negus said the studio wanted the narrative to feel "ripped from the headlines" such as the role played by American troops stationed in South Korea if North Korea were to attack its neighbor.
When explaining the changes made to the movement system in Modern Warfare 4, co-studio head Mark Grigsby said that the development team was motivated by player feedback to their previous title, Modern Warfare II (2022), where movement was perceived as being more restricted. The game does not employ the "Omnimovement" system featured in Treyarch's titles, Black Ops 6 (2024) and Black Ops 7 (2025), though Grigsby and O'Hara said Infinity Ward still aimed to make movement as fast and fluid as possible.
Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Call of Duty game to only release on ninth generation consoles. Activision press material claimed that the game will set "a new technical benchmark for the series". The PC version's development was aided by Beenox, as with every Call of Duty title since Black Ops 4 (2018). The PC version will feature expanded ray tracing effects, including ray traced reflections, ambient occlusion and shadows, across all game modes. Modern Warfare 4 is the first Call of Duty title to ship on a Nintendo console since Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) released on Wii U. The Nintendo Switch 2 version was developed by Digital Legends, who previously worked on Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile (2024). O'Hara said the process has been "pretty seamless" and they "got the game up and running pretty quickly" on the Switch 2. It will support cross-play and optional Joy-Con 2 mouse controls on the console.
Release Modern Warfare 4 was announced on May 28, 2026, set to be released on October 23 for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. Unlike previous Call of Duty titles Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7, which launched on Xbox Game Pass on release day, Modern Warfare 4 is set to release on the subscription service at least a year after release day. Additionally, users who digitally pre-order Modern Warfare 4 are granted early access to the campaign mode, starting from October 16, 2026.
Similar to previous Call of Duty titles, players who pre-order Modern Warfare 4 were granted early access to an open beta test for the game's multiplayer mode, which began August 21 and concluded on September 1; all players were granted access to the beta test from August 28. Unlike previous titles, Xbox Game Pass users were not granted early access to the open beta. For the first time in the franchise's history, in addition to multiplayer content, the Modern Warfare 4 beta also included a campaign mission and a new "Resurgence" map for Call of Duty: Warzone (2022).
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