In 2019, leaks are coming early and often for everything under the sun. Over the last year, we have seen early leaks of Far Cry New Dawn and Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted. But that comes with an equal dose of fake news — and that includes the recently rumored Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is absolutely not real.
If you hadn’t heard of this rumored leak yet, let’s dive a bit into the backstory. Yesterday someone shared the image above, saying “First Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Promo Art Possibly Leaked.” The image was on folded graphic paper, trying to give the impression that this was promotional content that was snuck away:
First Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Promo Art Possibly Leaked from r/xboxone
Plenty of fans of the series were hopeful, and the fake news started spreading. This includes both influencers and less reputable outlets:
Real or fake?
I say fake… pic.twitter.com/7ramW9nwJd
— Chaos (@Chaosxsilencer) March 15, 2019
BREAKING: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 promotional art may have been leaked! #ModernWarfare4 #MW4https://t.co/miGF3GEMLr
— Gaming INTEL – Leaks, Dataminers & News (@GamingINTELcom) March 15, 2019
However, anyone who has been analyzing leaks would easily be able to point out the many problems with this. Why is the image so low-quality and on seemingly printed on standard printer paper? Frankly, it looks like a concept image with a logo pasted on it…
…and that is exactly what it is.
Diligent internet sleuths were likely able to do a reverse image search and noted that the original image belongs to René Aigner, a concept artist who shared that image via his ArtStation account. According to Aigner, this was just “a quick illustration” built off of a base mesh:
So what happened? Some internet hoax creator just went ahead and added a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 logo onto this, printed it out, folded it up a bit, and shared it on the internet. Far from the most elaborate hoax we’ve seen, especially if you remember the Grinch hoax that embodied Super Smash Bros. Ultimate pre-release.
If you find yourself disappointed, we get you — we’d love to dive into another Modern Warfare game. But in the meantime, Activision and Treyarch has you covered this weekend with their new Shamrock and Awe update which adds a ton of free content.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. If you haven’t dipped into the title, you can grab the game now on Amazon.
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