Clearly, all is not well in the world of Call of Duty. Black Ops 7 appears to have struggled for players and sales relatively speaking amid tough competition from the likes of EA’s Battlefield 6 and Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders, and coming out just a year after Black Ops 6. Microsoft is yet to announce a player count or a sales figure for Black Ops 7, nor has it detailed any boost to Game Pass subscriber numbers as a result of its launch. Clearly, it hasn’t met its expectations.
Last month, sales data suggested Black Ops 7 was struggling not just against rival shooter Battlefield 6, but also last year’s Black Ops 6. The Game Business reported that Black Ops 7’s European launch saw opening week sales down 63% versus Battlefield 6 during the equivalent launch periods for each shooter, and Black Ops 7 also down by more than 50% versus Black Ops 6. All in all, Black Ops 7 had a “terrible” launch, The Game Business’ chief Chris Dring said in a post on social media.
Then, in a shock development, Activision promised never to release Black Ops or Modern Warfare games back to back again. In a statement attributed to “the Call of Duty team” (Treyarch, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, Raven Software and co.), Activision admitted “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.”
Activision continued: “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.”
Fast forward to this week, and Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has painted a slightly rosier picture. When asked about Black Ops 7’s performance by Variety, Booty responded to confirm that it’s one of the most-played games on Xbox right now, and that he was proud of what the development team was able to achieve. He then said Call of Duty is “its own unique category” because of Activision’s ability to release content via a seasonal model, so the launch isn’t the end of Black Ops 7’s story.
