Like the sun rises, a new Call of Duty game is coming out later this year, and developer Infinity Ward seems to be feeling incredibly confident about its latest entry in the long-running FPS franchise.
Infinity ward has new leadership
It’s once again Infinity Ward’s turn to put out a Call of Duty game this year. The studio’s most recent entry was 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which, despite launching with a solid multiplayer suite consisting of remade maps from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, disappointed fans with its underwhelming campaign. Treyarch naturally took over for both 2024 and 2025’s Call of Duty titles, Black Ops 6 and BO7, respectively, giving Infinity Ward some time to regroup with new studio leaders in Infinity Ward veterans Mark Grigsby and Jack O’Hara.
After Infinity Ward wrapped up its Modern Warfare reboot trilogy, fans wondered what the studio would do next. It’s been heavily rumored, however, that the studio is expanding beyond these three most recent Modern Warfare games with Modern Warfare 4. The Modern Warfare subseries is a core part of the Call of Duty identity, and while Infinity Ward has experimented with offshoots in the past like 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts and 2016’s Infinite Warfare, it makes sense for the team to want to return to the MW series with its established cast of characters and the new story it’s telling with them. However, it’s important to keep in mind that it still hasn’t been officially confirmed that Modern Warfare 4 is the studio’s new game.
Infinity Ward is starting a bold new chapter
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) May 21, 2026
No official details have come out yet about Infinity Ward’s 2026 Call of Duty game, but that hasn’t stopped the studio from making a statement that’s sure to get fans excited. On X, Infinity Ward made a post penned by new studio leaders Mark Grigsby and Jack O’Hara that expresses the studio’s bold new mindset toward its new Call of Duty game, calling it a “new chapter” for the team.
“As a new chapter begins for this studio, we’re focused on what defines us: passion, precision, obsession, and an unrelenting drive to make the best entertainment in the industry. Our next game is the result of that mindset. Determined. Bold. Relentless. Built by a team pushing every detail, every system, every moment to its limit.”
As somebody who really enjoyed the grounded, gritty single-player campaign Infinity Ward crafted for its 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, a message like this gets me excited and hopeful for Infinity Ward to return to that level of care and detail for this next game. Missions like Clean House, The Embassy, and Highway of Death each offered up different takes on gameplay and were each incredibly detailed and thrilling to play. One could feel the high degree of care Infinity Ward put into each level of that entire campaign. Many fans of the series would agree that the campaigns of 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 and certainly 2023’s MW3 never quite lived up to the 2019 reboot in those ways. Perhaps releasing two Modern Warfare games in back-to-back years took a toll, ultimately leading to MW3‘s open-area Warzone-style missions that largely missed the mark for fans.
At this point in time it’s impossible to know whether this rumored Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will offer a campaign that features more of the open-area missions that populated Modern Warfare 3‘s mission list. However, judging by Grigsby and O’Hara’s statement, the studio may be pushing for a single player experience that more closely aligns with 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot in terms of its attention to detail and carefully designed cinematic experiences.
Infinity Ward’s statement leaves off by letting fans know that the team is “excited to finally start sharing,” meaning the studio is likely looking to have its big official announcement quite soon. Summer Game Fest is just a mere two weeks away, and Xbox’s showcase goes live on June 7. Perhaps Infinity Ward will have more to share on Xbox’s big summer stage.
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