Seemingly everyone within games media has their money on the next Call of Duty to come from series founder Infinity Ward being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and a new discovery makes that possibility seem even more likely than before. Considering that most games within the revolutionary first-person shooter franchise are announced in May, the first official news of the long-awaited continuation of the Modern Warfare line is surely just around the corner.
Even in an annualized franchised like Call of Duty, the eight years that have passed since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released in 2011 have felt like an eternity, and players have been itching to step back into the steel-toed boots of the elite members of Task Force 141 and SAS ever since. Just this April, an NFL star and two high-profile NFL draft picks may have been given the opportunity to do just that, meaning that whatever the upcoming Call of Duty is, it’s in a playable state and is generating a lot of excitement. Though it’s currently unnamed, it’s known that the new game will bring back the series’ defining blockbuster campaigns with which Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 unpopularly did away, raising hopes even higher that the next Call of Duty will go back to the roots of its heyday in other ways, too.
Digging a little deeper, Gamespot has sniffed out a smoking gun that very strongly suggests that the Modern Warfare sub-series will finally be returning. To stay ahead of the curve in the gaming industry, all one needs to do is follow the talent that makes all of the interactive magic possible, and the resumés of five Infinity Ward employees all point to Modern Warfare 4’s existence. All five left Infinity Ward around the time that the company’s co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West were terminated by Call of Duty publisher Activision, at which point the pair started their own studio, Respawn Entertainment, the creative powerhouse behind Titanfall. This caused a massive diaspora of top talent from Infinity Ward to Respawn, but Respawn’s Zied Rieke, Joel Emslie, Mark Grigsby, Geoffrey Smith, and Alex Roycewicz have all notably gone back to Infinity Ward within the last two years.
These highly talented veterans of both the Modern Warfare and Titanfall games could have made the jump back to Infinity Ward for loads of reasons, but one in particular makes the most sense. After Respawn was acquired by EA in 2017, they probably could sense that Respawn was shifting its focus away from its unmistakable brand of twitch shooter toward unrelated projects like Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Of course, this rationale would only make it even more logical for them to return to the waiting arms of Infinity Ward, especially if the Call of Duty studio was actively recruiting a dream team of former Modern Warfare developers in order to give the dormant series a proper sequel. The official E3 Twitter account certainly seems to be aware that something is up, as well, teasing an Infinity Ward panel at E3 2019.
Though the above is the most immediately compelling interpretation of the back-and-forth movement of these key players, things may ultimately pan out differently. However, those that refuse to give up hope on a new Modern Warfare installment will soon see for themselves whether or not their optimism bears any fruit when this year’s Call of Duty is announced soon.
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Source: Gamespot, E3/Twitter
