This year’s Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4, will be the first entry in the modern series to skip the PS4 and Xbox One, releasing only on current-generation hardware.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches globally on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on Friday, October 23.
Announced today via an Activision livestream, developer Infinity Ward confirmed that its new “gritty” and “authentic” Call of Duty will be set in Korea – and will also release on Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time.
Modern Warfare 4’s three main modes, as ever, are campaign, multiplayer, and DMZ. The game is described as “a new technical benchmark” for the franchise, built “exclusively” for the latest generation consoles and PC.
While MW4’s new agile parkour mechanics and completely redesigned hip-fire suggest welcome changes to the series, its campaign story premise courts controversy.
Set in modern-day South Korea, the newly appointed fictional supreme leader of North Korea has invaded South Korea, plunging the peninsula into a deadly conflict. As a Korean journalist suggested to VGC contributor Tom Regan for The Guardian, this narrative depicting all-out war across Korea may prove divisive in the region.
“A full-scale invasion erupts in a new theater of war, on the Korean Peninsula, igniting a rapidly escalating crisis unlike anything the franchise has tackled before,” reads a synopsis for the game.
“In the high-stakes and unprecedented scale, ripped-from-the-headlines narrative, a volatile mix of political tension, shadow operations, and outside interference pushes the world toward the brink of war.
“Private Park, a young Korean grunt soldier, is thrust into combat for the first time, as he and his squad are forced to overcome impossible odds in a gripping zero-to-hero journey. Captain Price returns and forms a rogue alliance, operating outside the system and apart from the Task Force 141 team he once called his own.”
Activision promises missions set in “diverse global locations” including New York, Paris, and Mumbai.
For this year’s multiplayer suite, Infinity Ward says it will deliver 12 core 6v6 maps on day one, alongside Gunfight maps, multiple Big War maps built for vehicle and infantry combat, and Kill Block, a “dynamic battleground with more than 500 configurations that reshape routes, sightlines, and cover to keep players adapting round after round”.
The headline gameplay change is “Ballistic Authority”, a new “weapon-first technology stack” which Infinity Ward says “unifies precision aiming, physical handling, realistic audio propagation, enhanced visibility, and smarter combat perception into the most authentic Modern Warfare gunplay yet”.
“Bullet trajectory, weapon motion, Operator stance, camera, audio, FOV, and target visibility all line up in one highly tuned combat fidelity system,” it says. “The promise is simple: no bloom, no guesswork, and no doubt. Every shot tells the truth.”
The new Gunny system will help players quickly assemble effective builds based on their preferred playstyle and unlocked attachments, according to an anncouncement, while players will be able to choose from two Prestige paths: Classic Prestige and Regular Prestige.
“Classic Prestige delivers the traditional reset experience, relocking Create-a-Class progression in exchange for increased XP earn rates and access to exclusive Prestige rewards,” Activision says.
Finally, Activision says DMZ returns with a new weather system. “With a living world, the conditions in the exclusion zone are always shifting, with changing weather, dynamic military objectives, and hostile forces moving throughout the zone.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 development is led by Infinity Ward, with support from Beenox on PC, and Digital Legends on Nintendo Switch 2.
According to an announcement, support studios include Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch.
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