ActivisionA trusted Call of Duty leaker has claimed that the 2026 entry, thought to be titled Modern Warfare 4 and set partially in Korea, is a “copy” of Modern Warfare 2 (2022), one of the most divisive games in the series.
A new CoD game releases every year without fail, but since there are three main studios that rotate development, each one has its own approach. Infinity Ward made its name through the original Modern Warfare games, which are seen as three of the best shooters ever made.
However, the reboot series, which started with Modern Warfare (2019), has been much more controversial. The follow-up, Modern Warfare 2 (2022), the last entry that was led by IW, was especially divisive, with many fans criticizing the focus on realism, slow movement, and map design.
The legendary team is set to take center stage again in 2026 with a new CoD believed to be Modern Warfare 4, but a new leak has claimed it’s going to be very similar to MW2.
New CoD leak reveals that Modern Warfare 4 plays like MW2 (2022)
“Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer in its current state is currently a complete copy of Modern Warfare II except for no perk charging system and less ADS/slide penalties,” said reputable leaker ‘TheGhostOfHope’ in an X post.
They didn’t go into specifics, but this likely means that fans can expect slightly slower movement than we’ve seen in Black Ops 6 and 7, which are much faster-paced thanks to omnimovement. It’s not clear if this also means the return of Tac Sprint, which was removed in BO7.
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MW2 was also criticized for removing the Ninja Perk, which makes footsteps silent, and red dots from the minimap when players fire an unsuppressed weapon. In a reply to the original post, the leaker claimed the exact same will be true in Modern Warfare 4.
In another post, they also mentioned that the game’s guns will feature “A TON of visual recoil.” MW2 did the same in an effort to make its weapons feel realistic, but many players called out the feature, as it made some options impossible to use in both multiplayer and Warzone.
Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but it sounds like MW4 is undoing many of the changes that have been introduced in Modern Warfare 3 (2023), which was made by Sledgehammer Games, as well as the last two Black Ops games from Treyarch.
This all comes after Activision announced a change in their annual release strategy, after Black Ops 7’s player count failed to reach the heights of previous years.