Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Leaked, Controversial Changes Revealed

Call of Duty 2026 is going to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and it is going to make some controversial changes, according to a new leak. The new leak comes the way of well-known Call of Duty insider The Ghost of Hope. According to the leaker, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IV is essentially going to be “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2.0.” For many Call of Duty fans, this is a disheartening comparison. That said, for Modern Warfare pursuits the news gets worse.

When Activision and Infinity Ward rebooted the Modern Warfare brand in 2019 with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it pitched the game as a more grounded, realistic, and gritty take on Call of Duty, which at that point, was years deep in the exact opposite. Before this reboot, Call of Duty gameplay was fast and futuristic, and many fans had grown sick of it. This new report claims the series is going back to this era.

Despite being a Modern Warfare game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is reportedly going to have both wall-running and omni-movement mechanics that will be consistent with what COD fans are going to see from this year’s Call of Duty game, which is reported to be a futuristic Black Ops game. However, this will apparently be balanced out with a more “traditional UI.”

It is also being claimed that the engine is being overhauled so the game doesn’t get weighed down by “visual clutter” and other technical issues that have been problems for previous Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games.

Lastly, it is claimed that the release will not support the old-gen consoles, aka the PS4 and Xbox One. However, in contrast, it is claimed it is being developed for the next-gen Xbox, which the leaker claims will be out in late 2026 around the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Of course, take everything here with a grain of salt. The source in question has proven reliable in the past, particularly when it comes to Call of Duty, but their information beyond Call of Duty has come in question in the past as well. This should specifically be kept in mind for the tidbit about the next-gen Xbox.

At the moment of publishing, none of the implicated parties — Activision, Infinity Ward, nor Xbox — have commented on this report and the speculation it has created. Typically, all three do not comment on rumors and leaks, so we do not suspect this will change, but if it does, we will be sure to update the story accordingly.