Call of Duty is Shooting Themselves in the Foot With Black Ops 7

Earlier this year, the Xbox Showcase had one final surprise for gamers: another Call of Duty game. No, that wasn’t surprising, because the games are and have long been yearly releases. It would be more shocking if they skipped a year or took some time off. What was shocking was that it was another game in the Black Ops series, just one year later.

This has never happened before. Since Call of Duty: Black Ops in 2010, there has been at least two years between series installments every time, sometimes longer. Black Ops II was released in 2012, followed by Black Ops III in 2015. Black Ops IV was another three-year wait, and Black Ops: Cold War came in 2020. It was this schedule that helped each of these games, even if a different Call of Duty game came in between all of them. By abandoning that, the franchise is making a mistake.

Black Ops 7 Will Destroy Black Ops 6

The shelf life of a Call of Duty game is pretty inconsequential for the franchise. They literally pump them out yearly, so it’s probably not a major concern that a game’s relevance only truly lasts one year. Still, ending a game’s time in the spotlight or even adjacent to the spotlight prematurely isn’t good. There’s money to be made, and Black Ops 7 is tampering with that.

Beyond the obvious change (having zombies), Black Ops games are different from Modern Warfare titles or other lines. They may not be that different in the grand scope of first-person shooters, but they do feel distinct from one another. The gameplay, story, and general feel are not the same.

So while there is a Call of Duty every year, there’s not a Modern Warfare every year, nor is there a Black Ops every single year. This helps keep them fresh. When we get the next Modern Warfare title, which seems to be 2026 or later, it will feel newer than it actually is because it’ll have been since 2023 that the last release in that line was put out.

By spacing them out, Call of Duty is smartly allowing players to play different things but keeping the games relevant for longer. If I want to play a Black Ops game, I might go to Black Ops 6 right now. In a couple of months, I won’t. But if there was a Modern Warfare game or even something else (maybe a new line), I’d return to Black Ops 6 to scratch that itch.

Zombies Needs More Space in Between Releases

What the Black Ops series brings to the table, primarily, is zombies. With a few ill-advised exceptions, this series is where players can get zombies. That was true in Black Ops 6, and it’s going to be true again in Black Ops 7. If you want zombies, go to a Black Ops game.

By doubling down here, Call of Duty has effectively ended the relevance of any Black Ops 6 map. You can forget about Terminus, Citadelle des Morts, or Shattered Veil, and you will forget about them by the time 2025 comes to an end because other maps will take their place.

While it helps that older Black Ops games were just that good, especially with zombies, part of what makes them stand the test of time is how long players spent with them. Black Ops II is my personal pick for the best Call of Duty game.

This is largely because of the excellent zombies, but it’s also partly because I had three years with it before another Black Ops game came along. Black Ops III had the same phenomenon because another zombies game wasn’t around for several years (and it was worse).

This is also why it’s good that not every Call of Duty game has zombies mode. Shoehorning the mode into Modern Warfare III and Vanguard was ill-advised, and those games are perceived pretty poorly. Space and time are good things, though Call of Duty has never been too into that idea.

Still, by spacing the series out, they balanced the need for time and space with their insatiable desire to have a new game every year pretty well. Unfortunately, impatience has struck again, and Black Ops 6, a game that many saw as a major step in the right direction for Call of Duty, is left to suffer for it.

And with Black Ops 7 also going on Game Pass, therefore essentially being “free,” there’s going to be little reason to even have Black Ops 6 installed at all, at least for Xbox and PC gamers.

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