Activision, the publisher behind Call of Duty, has issued a statement on the future of the franchise following the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Last month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was released, and there were a lot of things to overcome. Arguably, the most notable thing was that it was released against Battlefield 6, which was saying and doing all of the right things. That game went on to dominate in sales, leading to an impressive comeback for the series. Still, Call of Duty is an undeniable juggernaut, and it was leveraging the power of Black Ops 2, one of the best games in the series, in all of its marketing.
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While we don’t know exact sales numbers for the game yet, EA did crown itself the best-selling shooter game of 2025 after the release of Black Ops 7. It’s unclear if this was using data from before or after Black Ops 7‘s release, but it certainly drew attention. Even though Call of Duty has been at the top or near the top of the most-played games since the newest entry’s release, many have debated the game’s quality.
According to user reviews, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been a total misfire, though review bombing isn’t new for the franchise. Still, critic reviews for Black Ops 7 haven’t been universally glowing either. ComicBook gave the new Call of Duty a 2.5 out of 5, noting that a messy story and a failure to innovate led to a fairly forgettable game.
Call of Duty Will No Longer Do Back-to-Back Modern Warfare or Black Ops Games, Promises to Innovate More
With that said, it seems like none of this is lost on Activision, and the message was received loud and clear. The studio released a relatively somber blog post addressing the state of the franchise. First and foremost, Activision confirmed it would not be doing back-to-back Modern Warfare or Black Ops games anymore. That experiment seemingly didn’t work after Modern Warfare III failed to impress, and Black Ops 7 couldn’t carry the momentum from Black Ops 6.
The team noted that it hears fans on not being fulfilled and aim to fix that. A promise was even made to “meaningfully” innovate rather than do it incrementally, hoping to give players what they want while still surprising them.
“Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less,” reads part of the blog post. “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.
Black Ops 7 post-launch support will continue as planned, and there will even be a free-to-play period next week that will let players try multiplayer and Zombies. The aim is to give everyone the chance to see the game for themselves and make an assessment. Activision expressed optimism for the future of Call of Duty and aims to keep fans excited.
Of course, fans have heard these things before from all kinds of video game studios. I wouldn’t fault someone for approaching it with some skepticism. However, Call of Duty has been making major changes since August when Black Ops 7 was revealed. It killed carry-forward for the game, made a promise to scale back on absurd skins and cross-overs, and made sweeping changes to skill-based matchmaking.
It shows they are listening already and hopefully, that will continue. This statement may also debunk concerns that Call of Duty would go back to its old ways if Black Ops 7 underperformed. Of course, we’ll have to see how next year’s Call of Duty game fares, but there is reason to take this seriously at the moment.
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