Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare released

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360.

The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Windows, and it was released for the Mac in September 2008. It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is followed by a direct sequel, Modern Warfare 2. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years, and it uses a proprietary game engine.

The story takes place in a fictional near-future, where a radical leader has staged a coup d'état in the Middle East, and an "Ultranationalist" movement has instigated a civil war in Russia. The events of the conflicts are seen from the perspectives of an American Marine and a British SAS commando, and are set in multiple locations, including the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Prypiat, Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes, and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.

The game was given considerable praise, receiving an aggregated score of 94% from both Game Rankings and Metacritic. The gameplay, multiplayer, and story received particular praise, while criticism targeted what was perceived as an inability to revolutionize the first-person shooter genre. The game won numerous awards from gaming websites, including IGN's Best Xbox 360 Game. It was the top-selling game worldwide for 2007, reaching over seven million copies by January 2008, and over 13 million by May 2009.