Call of Duty will likely release Modern Warfare 4 sometime in 2026, and the thing is already mired in rumors. While these rumors themselves are sort of shaky in basis, however, the brand’s studio, Infinity Ward, came out publicly denying…it? Or not quite that, but kinda? Yeah, they’re not helping the situation…
Context: on December 14, 2025, notorious leaker “TheGhostOfHope” dropped a bombshell on X/Twitter, claiming that his sources have confided in him the information that Modern Warfare 4 would have a multiplayer mode that would be “a complete copy” of 2022’s Modern Warfare II.
Given that the game’s online mode was mostly blasted due to its weird skill-based matchmaking capabilities, as well as sweaty lobbies and other gameplay problems, the new information — as unconfirmed as it was — sparked some backlash to an already problematic brand (the “other” Call of Duty branch, “Black Ops”, is already contending with its own negative feedback).
Specifically, TheGhostOfHope’s claims mention “no perk charging system and less ADS/slide penalties” as new features, but other than that, the whole thing would be a carbon copy of the previous game, with the rumors specifically mentioning oh-so-hated things like “A TON [his caps, not ours] of visual recoil on weapons […] just like Modern Warfare II.”
The leaker’s claims were also picked by other, equally if not more reliable sources, like CharlieIntel, to name one, which adds more oomph to this rumor.
Modern Warfare studio fails at debunking; complicates rumors
The rumors alone would be enough for a regular news piece, but Infinity Ward did come forward earlier today to (not) address properly the entire claim, delivering something cryptic instead of tackling the potential leaks head on.
Starting with wishes for a great Holiday Season for its fans, Infinity Ward put out a simple disclaimer: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
Yeah, that’s good, solid advice, but it still feels weird considering Infinity Ward is a proprietary studio under Activision Blizzard King, and the publisher itself, a Microsoft-owned global operation. In short, they all own the franchise, to varying degrees of extent up to and including total IP ownership.
And since you own the damn thing, why not come forward to say the rumors aren’t true? Or are they? It is understandable that the game hasn’t even been confirmed as in development, but given the brand’s history, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume it is internally in the works. And as such, the less the studio wants to talk about it, the better.
Still, if a rumor is already making rounds — and this one was — about your unannounced, unreleased project, the standard procedure in the comms department would be to get ahead on this, take ownership of the narrative and either confirm or deny the whole thing, with proper explanation and context.
Which Infinity Ward chose not to do.
The only possible outcome for this, then, is the one already taking place: a huge debate has sparked among fans. On one side, people are calling TheGhostOfHope’s track record into question, saying he’s unreliable. It is important to note that, as complicated as “leaks” are, this particular insider has been right before — on several occasions, one might add: he got a lot of things right about Call of Duty titles like Vanguard, MWII, MWIII, BO6, and BO7, for instance.
Others are defending the leaks (note that we’re saying “defending”, not “believing”), accusing Infinity Ward of trying to save face for a game’s potential problems. A game, we cannot stress this enough, doesn’t even officially exist yet.
The whole thing is gearing up to be the talk of town for a little while — and Infinity Ward may not like having to clean that up.
