Infinity Ward aims to "go back to the roots of Call of Duty" for Modern Warfare 4

A new video series following Modern Warfare 4's development has shed light on how the team is tackling the campaign portion's direction.

Activision announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 yesterday, bringing back the long-running series for a fresh story that will now follow a new war brewing in the Korean Peninsula. With an October release date locked in, the developer Infinity Ward is now publishing a new series of videos following the first-person shooter's development.

The first episode of this "From The Ward" series landed today, which goes into detail on how the studio is approaching the campaign. The development team is framing this installment as a return to a "big war" format, having players participate in large-scale battles like reclaiming a city.

"I think what's crazy is this feels like making a World War II game sometimes. This is our opportunity for big war to bring it back and do it the modern warfare way," says Zied Rieke, studio gameplay director. "And to us, that means a large-scale battle reclaiming a city. All of it's visceral, all of it's gritty. It's all grounded and ripped from the headlines, but we get to experience it in a variety of different ways."

With the new conflict being a major plot point of the campaign, the studio says it has heavily studied the history between South Korea and North Korea and the divide between the two for this project. The new squad of protagonists in this portion of the missions will be a group of young men who haven't seen any combat before, as well.

"So when the call of duty came about, it was like it was your duty to serve your country, your duty to fight in the war for your country," says Mark Grigsby, co-studio head. "So this time around we were like, 'All right, we're going to be in Korea, you know, it's north versus south.' What better place to go back to the roots of what Call of Duty is than that conflict."

Watch the complete video blog from Infinity Ward above, which also has quick looks at the motion capture process and mission direction for the upcoming title.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is releasing on October 23, 2026, across PC (Steam, Xbox, Battle.net), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch 2.