New reports reveal that this year’s Call of Duty game will be titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. CoD YouTuber LongSensation announced this on Twitter to a less than impressed audience. This confusing announcement signals that Call of Duty will be rebooting itself after a difficult few years of underwhelming releases.
https://twitter.com/LongSensationYT/status/1131906963468693504
Call of Duty veterans should be familiar with the original Modern Warfare, released back in 2007. More recent fans will know that Modern Warfare Remastered followed in 2016, originally bundled with Infinite Warfare’s Legacy Edition. However, Call of Duty 2019 should not be mistaken as another remake or remaster. Activision is aiming to reignite the Call of Duty franchise so that it can return to its former glory.
Jason Schreier, a news editor at Kotaku, confirmed Long Sensation’s initial tweet. He details that it should be a “soft reboot,” of the original Modern Warfare and Infinity Ward are focusing on “realistic emotional moments.” Consider the latter to be inspired by some of Call of Duty’s best missions like No Russian and All Ghillied Up.
I can confirm this is true, and that it's hilarious. The first one was "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" so obviously the fourth one is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." Video games are absurd https://t.co/Ghb1m2srC4
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 24, 2019
Activision themselves haven’t confirmed or denied these rumors, but history shows that Schreier tends to get these things right. Just earlier this year, he shut down reports that Call of Duty 2019 would be Ghosts 2. He also confirmed seven months before its release that Black Ops 4 wouldn’t feature a traditional single-player campaign.
Supposedly, Activision has already showcased the new CoD in private events. Some NFL prospects got hands-on during the recent draft in Nashville. Certain unnamed press and influencers have also gotten the chance to see what Modern Warfare has to offer.
This switch up in approach is just one of the things Activision are now doing differently. Call of Duty 2020 was originally scheduled to be a collaboration between Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Responsible for Advanced Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered respectively, Activision has decided instead that Treyarch will now take over the project. The reasons for this decision remain unclear.