Call of Duty Addresses Black Ops 7 Issues and Series Future

activision, call of duty, Call of Duty Black Ops 7

The release of Call of Duty Black Ops 7 has been met with a very mixed reception from fans of one of the biggest franchises in gaming. With an incredibly generous array of content including a campaign, multiplayer, zombies and much more, few would disagree that Black Ops 7 is a comprehensive Call of Duty.

Though it is understood that the release of Black Ops 7 has massively under delivered for Activision and Xbox. With the release of 2024’s Black Ops 6, the publisher announced it was a series high for Call of Duty with all-time launch weekend metrics for the game. Though, in contrast, the message released for Black Ops 7 didn’t offer any player numbers or boasts. In comparison:

Black Ops 6 was the biggest launch weekend for Call of Duty

Much has been made of the issues with Call of Duty Black Ops 7’s campaign – which we thought was good in review – though the zeitgeist online has been very negative. With players complaining about the absurdity of the content. Even Call of Duty community legend, JGOD had some truly damming comments.

To add more smoke to the fire that this years Call of Duty has underperformed for the mega publisher, an official left field statement has been released commenting on the future of the series. In the statement, they said that they will continue to deliver seasonal content, and not deliver back-to-back releases from the same COD sub-franchises in the future (ie no more back-to-back MW2 > MW3; BO6 > BO7 as we have seen in the last few years):

We Are Committed to Unprecedented Seasonal Support

Your continuing feedback will help shape our seasonal updates over the coming months. Season 01 is the largest live season ever and we’re just getting started. We won’t rest until Black Ops 7 earns its place as one of the best Black Ops games we’ve ever made.

Our Strategy Going Forward Is Changing

We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games. The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.
We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.

From: Call of Duty blog.

So, What’s Caused The Decline?

It has to be said that the release of direct competitor Battlefield 6, which had the biggest video game release in the United States since 2022, will have made Activision uneasy. Player numbers for Battlefield 6’s launch weekend greatly exceeded those of Call of Duty’s.

Another factor may be the number of Xbox Game Pass customers who will have cancelled their subscriptions when Xbox greatly increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate recently. Many online were quick to cancel their subscriptions when the price for Ultimate increased 50%, with Black Ops 7 only being in the highest tier of Microsoft’s subscription service.

So, will Call of Duty move to a bi-annual franchise? For now, that seems highly unlikely given the cash cow it is for Activision and Xbox. Even a fully fledged DLC package in between full launches – which EA’s F1 series is doing for their 2026 release – seems unrealistic for a game that has remained top of the industry for almost 20 years. Call of Duty’s player base will grow in the future as the series is scheduled to come to Nintendo Switch 2 in due course, though there’s been little on that from Xbox since the process of the Activision acquisition was still incomplete.

How do you feel about Call of Duty Black Ops 7? Has Black Ops 7 stepped too far from the franchise’s routes? Let us know in the comments below or join the friendly and active Gamer Social Club Discord to chat about all about Call of Duty and your other favourite games.