On May 28, the official Call of Duty YouTube channel went live with a stream that nobody really knew what it was going to lead to.

There were explosions across a cityscape in the video, with the cameras being swapped as the previous one had been destroyed. At roughly the ten-minute mark, it transferred from the live stream to a video premiere titled “SIGNAL LOST” where the timer and everything around it was left exactly where it was.

After the timer ran out, a rating warning popped up and off to the races we went watching the brand-new Call of Duty trailer. It showed off story elements of a South Korean squad, Captain Price seemingly gone rogue, and closing out on both Captain Price and Ghost pulling knives on each other with Ghost saying that he has broken too many rules and Price responding with no more.  

This was met with a lot of optimism from the community online as the new trailer looked very dark and gritty, but Infinity Ward was not done showing their new work. Infinity Ward would announce that they would also be starting a new video series called “From the Ward” starting on May 29 where they would be posting an in-depth behind the scenes of the crucial parts of developing the “definitive Modern Warfare”.

Infinity Ward would not end there, though, as they unloaded a ton of information to help assuage some of the fears that some of the more pessimistic fans. First, they would talk about the availability and platforms available to play this new installment on and the biggest surprise would be that the franchise is indeed making a return to Nintendo consoles as Modern Warfare 4 will be available on the Switch 2 with all the features of the other consoles and the ability to cross-play with other platforms.

The pre-orders for the Switch version of the game are expected to go live Summer 2026. However, with a massive return like Nintendo there has to be some sacrifice and that comes in the form of last-gen consoles officially being fazed out of compatibility for this title. They also confirmed that come season one of the Modern Warfare 4 cycle, Warzone will be unplayable on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions so some players may be forced to upgrade to play their favorite battle royale. 

Campaign 

This campaign tackles yet another taboo and terrifying thought of a modern North v. South Korea war with North Korea being the aggressor and catching the South off-guard with an ambush. The story, though goes back to the classical linear, three act Call of Duty that a lot of players have been requesting. To anyone who loved the open-world missions, but they are gone for the time being. Although the story starts in Korea, the campaign is harkening back to its roots with Modern Warfare 3 from 2011 with locations like New York, Paris, and Russia coming back into the mix but also tossing in Mumbai as a fifth location for the player to explore.

The characters you will be exploring these locations with are some familiar faces as well as we see the return of Captain Price, Valeria, Shadow Company, and the new guys to the block being the South Korea military. Now another character was revealed with it being Simon “Ghost” Riley, but it is unknown if he will be a playable character or someone that we might have to face off against. The biggest plus to come to the campaign though is not the characters, locations, or even the return to dark and desolate story telling like its predecessors. It is the news that this campaign is playable completely offline unlike the past few years. So don’t be afraid to keep going on the story if you get stuck on an uncomfortable family vacation.  

Multiplayer 

Naturally, multiplayer got the biggest news dump of the day as it is the franchise’s biggest mode and draws the biggest crowds with the Esports scene. One big adjustment that needs to pointed out first is the exclusion of the new ‘Omnimovement’ system that we have seen in Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7. They say that the new movement is a hybrid between the Modern Warfare 2019 system and the most recent Modern Warfare III.

This new movement style brings in slide cancelling and slide to ADS (Aim Down Sights) as well as the ever-controversial Tactical Sprint. The Tac Sprint feature is getting revised though as it is being hailed as more “realistic” as you can actively see your character lose stamina. This movement also includes supine sliding (diving into a backwards prone), ledge hanging, climbing on poles, jumping from ladders, and operator interactivity with the environment to where your weapon will angle whenever you approach a wall, door, or whatever else they might throw in your way.  

Now the core pieces of the Multiplayer experience are changing and it is too much to break down in the way the movement did so here are some of the changes that are coming that are given as just basic information.  

• Red Dots on the Mini Map  

• Map Voting Returns  

• Theater Mode Returns  

• No Bloom on your weapons  

• 12 6v6 maps as well as Gunfight and Big War 

• Ability to compile shaders offline 

• Classic Perk system with Ninja returning as a perk  

• Operator and Streaks are interchangeable per loadout with no factions so any operator to any class 

• Riot Shields return but as a field upgrade and are destructible 

The last thing to point out though is progression system that you can pick for when you are ready to prestige your character. The first option is the route of the classic prestige, where 10 prestiges reset all your unlocks when upgrading but comes with a 20% experience boost and new rewards through every level. The other option is the regular track, which is just base experience gains and a one-time Ghost skin that they have not shown off yet. With that, it is more lucrative to suffer the pain of not having your favorite gun for a couple of games so you can level up just that much quicker.  

DMZ 

Now there is not much information for the third mode of Modern Warfare 4, but they did say that they will unveil more information at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7th, so be sure to tune in to that.  

After the big reveal, data miners went into everything they could so far and found some interesting things to share. One of the big ones is the possible return of a early access to the new campaign. If you pre-order the game on Xbox, a ‘Campaign Early Access Pack’ will be in the downloads, so while it has not been officially announced, it looks increasingly likely. Another little detail was the developers acknowledging the ‘update requires restart’ notification and they said that they will be looking to finally end it with this installment. Continuing with news to make the fan base happy, they announced that going forward with Modern Warfare 4, all the collaborations and cosmetics have to feel authentic with that meaning no wacky skins. Finally, the developers responded to a skeptic fan saying that the trailer looked more cinematic and not gameplay so the looks don’t matter.

The official Call of Duty account responded and said that 90 percent of the reveal was in-engine, meaning that it is very much from the game itself, which means we are truly getting a masterpiece. As of now Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set to release on October 23rd with more new coming on the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7th.