The PlayStation 4 launched in 2013. Over a decade later, it may still be getting new Call of Duty releases. According to leaker Alaix (@HeyImAlaix), who has a solid track record with unreleased CoD content including Vanguard's map pool and Black Ops skin collaborations, the next entry in the series is currently being playtested on Sony's last-gen hardware.
Alaix believes the game in question is Modern Warfare 4. His tweet was brief: "Hearing that MW4 is currently being playtested on PS4." That's it. No additional details, no release window, no platform list. Just the one claim that's now got the CoD community talking.
Why this keeps happening
Here's the thing: Activision has done this before, repeatedly. Most recent Call of Duty titles shipped across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC simultaneously. The logic is straightforward. The PS4 has sold over 117 million units, and a meaningful portion of that install base hasn't upgraded to PS5. Leaving them behind means leaving money on the table.
But there's a real cost to that decision. The rebooted Modern Warfare sub-series, starting with the 2019 entry, has pushed the CoD engine further than it's gone in years, with improved lighting, texture fidelity, and physics simulation. Every time Activision targets last-gen hardware, those systems have to scale back to fit inside a 2013 console's memory and GPU limits.
The comparison that keeps coming up is CD Projekt Red's approach with Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR eventually drew a hard line: the 2.0 update and the Phantom Liberty expansion were simply not coming to PS4. The hardware couldn't handle the changes without making the experience worse for everyone. Activision hasn't made that call yet.
This information comes from a leaker, not an official Activision announcement. Activision has not confirmed Modern Warfare 4 or any PS4 release plans at this time.
The "same game every year" problem gets worse
Call of Duty has taken criticism for years over how little changes between annual releases. Activision itself acknowledged this, announcing it would no longer do back-to-back Modern Warfare or Black Ops releases to give each entry more room to feel distinct. That's an admission that the formula needs more space to breathe.
Designing for PS4 hardware actively works against that goal. If the engine team knows the game has to run on 8GB of RAM and a mid-range 2013 GPU, the ceiling for what's technically possible drops significantly. Visual improvements, larger maps, more complex AI, better destruction physics , all of it gets trimmed or cut.
The counterargument is that CoD isn't really selling on technical specs anyway. It sells on brand recognition, multiplayer habit loops, and Warzone. A PS4 version that runs at 1080p and 60fps with reduced draw distances is probably fine for the majority of that audience.
Still, at some point the math has to flip. PS5 adoption has grown steadily, and the PS4's active player base shrinks every quarter. The question isn't whether Activision will eventually drop last-gen support. It's whether Modern Warfare 4 will be the game where they finally do it, or whether that decision gets pushed back yet again.
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