It's still early days for Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, but the team is already making some eye-catching statements, with a new blog post confirming that, looking ahead for the Call of Duty franchise, there will no longer be any back-to-back game releases for Black Ops and Modern Warfare.
"The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year," the blog post reads. "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."
Traditionally, the Call of Duty series has rotated, with different sub-series launching each year as development studios like Infinity Ward and Treyarch helmed new entries.
That changed in 2023, which saw the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, coming a year after Modern Warfare 2. This cycle repeated again in 2025, with Black Ops 7 launching hot on the heels of 2024's Black Ops 6.
Looking ahead, the Call of Duty team is offering a free trial of Black Ops 7 next week, while also noting that the developers are committed to "unprecedented" seasonal support, even as the team acknowledges unhappy player sentiment.
"Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less," the blog reads. "We also know that for some of you, the Franchise has not met your expectations fully. To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward."
Call of Duty faced increased competition and criticism this year
While the Call of Duty franchise is a yearly juggernaut usually only displaced on sales charts by Rockstar titles, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 faced far stronger competition than usual.
Electronic Arts launched Battlefield 6 earlier in October, with it quickly becoming the best-selling game of the year in the U.S, while the publisher claimed it was also the best-selling shooter of the year as a whole.
Black Ops 7 has also seen repeated criticism from players deriding the "slop" AI-generated artwork present in the game, something that began with Black Ops 6.
I'm curious to see just how the teams focus on addressing player feedback, as well as what the development rotation looks like in the future to avoid having back-to-back titles.
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