Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Announced, Set on Korean Peninsula

Infinity Ward restructured its studio before beginning development, establishing four core pillars: gameplay first, a world inspired by real news, realistic characters who are never superheroes, and a bug-free launch. Narrative director Jeff Negus said the team started planning the game around the time Modern Warfare 2 was nearly finished. "We had planned the big vision for this game from around that time," he told 4Gamer in an interview.

The PC version is co-developed with Beenox, and the Nintendo Switch 2 version with Digital Legends. Cross-play will work across all platforms, according to studio multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot. "In 2019, we had a great opportunity and implemented cross-play for the first time. Now, Switch 2 will just be added to that," he said.

To research the Korean setting, the team created an internal Slack channel called "Korean Culture" staffed by Korean colleagues. They consulted on dialect, cultural details, and whether specific lines sounded authentic. "When we showed them videos to confirm, they would tell us, 'That actor sounds more like a North Korean than a South Korean,'" associate design director Alex Norris said.

The campaign opens with a mixed unit of U.S. forces and ROK Marines taking missile fire during a patrol. Price's story includes a train escape in rural France, a car chase through Paris, a sequence in Mumbai (a first for the series), and involvement in a coup inside North Korea. The game ends with a large-scale amphibious assault reminiscent of the Incheon Landing. Negus said the team wanted to establish early that "this is not the same experience as before."

Multiplayer design lead Jacky Reynolds said the team tested maps, equipment, and movement with various content creators from early development. "Listening to the community and figuring out how to maintain game balance is something we've placed great importance on from the early stages," he said.