[STEAM] Infinity Ward says BTS, Blackpink and Squid Game helped inspire Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

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Infinity Ward is looking to breathe new life into Call of Duty’s campaign mode by riding the Korean cultural wave in Modern Warfare 4.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is slated to come out on October 23, 2026. Ahead of the game’s launch, Infinity Ward studio head Mark Grigsby met with members of the press today, July 15, to share a wealth of new details about the campaign mode of the upcoming project — including the rationale behind its primary setting on the Korean peninsula, which he said was inspired by the global popularity of Korean cultural exports like BTS, Blackpink, and “Squid Game.”

“Right now, we’re in the fourth Hollywood wave of what South Korea has pushed on the world,” Grigsby said during the briefing. “That’s from their music, their food, and their entertainment, from TV to movies.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has been in development for roughly three years, with principal production kicking off in late 2023, only two years after the summer of “Squid Game.” In addition to leaning into the global popularity of Korean culture, the upcoming Call of Duty game takes advantage of the ongoing geopolitical situation in the region to provide a timely, relevant setting without referencing a real-life conflict with a high likelihood of turning into all-out war in the near future, per Grigsby.

“When we talk to people from South Korea — employees that we have, or even our military advisors and things like that — they go, ‘It’s really not going to happen,’” Grigsby said. “But there’s definitely some tension there, right? So we were like, ‘there is a story there.’”

Inside the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign

The story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is built around three distinct narrative threads: the journey of a group of young U.S. soldiers and South Korean marines drafted into service, the internal conflicts within a fictionalized version of the North Korean government, and the adventures of the classic Modern Warfare character Captain John Price. During the briefing, Grigsby revealed that Price kills Vladimir Makarov, the main antagonist of the original Modern Warfare series, in the second level of Modern Warfare 4.

“He beats him to death,” Grigsby said. “So, this game isn’t about Makarov. This is a totally new game.”

Throughout the press briefing, Grigsby made it clear that the campaign and narrative of Modern Warfare 4 were a major focus during Infinity Ward’s development process. In past years, some critics have lambasted more recent iterations of Call of Duty, such as last year’s ****** Ops 7, for

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over the game’s campaign mode. In Modern Warfare 4, the campaign is front and center, providing a setting for the game’s DMZ extraction mode and eschewing co-op campaigns for a dedicated and offline-playable single-player narrative.

“We’ve always felt that campaign is a single-player experience,” Grigsby said. “I don’t think we have any plans in the future — us, personally — to do anything co-op, although if there’s a way to do it without being online, that could be cool.”

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