{"id":528744,"date":"2026-07-16T09:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/528744\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:35:12","slug":"infinity-ward-says-bts-blackpink-and-squid-game-helped-inspire-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/528744\/","title":{"rendered":"Infinity Ward says BTS, Blackpink and Squid Game helped inspire Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tBecome a member of GB MAX to gain exclusive access to the industry and to the most influential global B2B leadership community in the business of gaming, entertainment, and tech. Join now<\/a> and also get a VIP ticket to GamesBeat Next (Nov 2-3, SF).<\/p>\n

Infinity Ward is looking to breathe new life into Call of Duty\u2019s campaign mode by riding the Korean cultural wave in Modern Warfare 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is slated to come out on October 23, 2026. Ahead of the game\u2019s 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 \u2014\u00a0including 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 \u201cSquid Game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re in the fourth Hollywood wave of what South Korea has pushed on the world,\u201d Grigsby said during the briefing. \u201cThat\u2019s from their music, their food, and their entertainment, from TV to movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cSquid Game.\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk to people from South Korea \u2014 employees that we have, or even our military advisors and things like that \u2014 they go, \u2018It\u2019s really not going to happen,\u2019\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cBut there\u2019s definitely some tension there, right? So we were like, \u2018there is a story there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe beats him to death,\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cSo, this game isn\u2019t about Makarov. This is a totally new game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the press briefing, Grigsby made it clear that the campaign and narrative of Modern Warfare 4 were a major focus during Infinity Ward\u2019s development process. In past years, some critics have lambasted more recent iterations of Call of Duty, such as last year\u2019s Black Ops 7, for prioritizing multiplayer<\/a> over the game\u2019s campaign mode. In Modern Warfare 4, the campaign is front and center, providing a setting for the game\u2019s DMZ extraction mode and eschewing co-op campaigns for a dedicated and offline-playable single-player narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always felt that campaign is a single-player experience,\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we have any plans in the future \u2014\u00a0us, personally \u2014\u00a0to do anything co-op, although if there\u2019s a way to do it without being online, that could be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Become a member of GB MAX to gain exclusive access to the industry and to the most influential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[261116,156,261117,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-528744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-4","tag-entertainment","tag-infinity-ward","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}