In a reversal of plans, Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 won’t allow weapons, operators, or operator skins to carry forward from Black Ops 6.
In a community update posted on Tuesday, Activision says that it has seen the discussion about “the identity of Call of Duty”.
“Some of you have said we’ve drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place: immersive, intense, visceral and in many ways grounded,” they said. “That feedback hits home, and we take it seriously. We hear you.”
The publisher continues to say that developers Treyarch and Raven’s “north star” is to bring players a true spiritual successor to Black Ops 2. Because of that comes the decision to remove carry forward options. The publisher says the decision was ultimately made in order make Black Ops 7 “feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting.”
Now, wanting to keep things authentic to the new game is understandable, but there’s one problem: they’ve kind of said this before.
This isn’t the first time
Ahead of the release of Black Ops 6, Activision announced that content from Modern Warfare 2 and 3 wouldn’t carry forward to the new game. At the time, they said that it was done to allow players to “experience the Black Ops universe the way it’s meant to be played.”
Again, it’s understandable. But then, it only took a few months before Black Ops 6 became filled with operators and skins such as Beavis and Butt-head, Jay and Silent Bob, Stan Smith, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more. All done in the name of, apparently, “keeping that signature Black Ops style.”
To give credit, reports did surface earlier this year that Activision was aware that certain skins made the game “look stupid”. Still, after that report, more skins like the American Dad crossover came out, continuing the trend.
Recently, our Tom Henderson wrote about Call of Duty executives not being worried about the competition from EA’s Battlefield 6. Sources told Henderson that many at the top believe Call of Duty is “too big to fail”. While that might be true in a sense, it seems that the reaction and interest in Battlefield 6—along with the negative reactions to the Black Ops 6 reveal—has changed some thoughts.
You’d like to think that Activision truly has listened to the community regarding the over-the-top nature of some of the operators and skins that have made their way to Call of Duty in recent years. But, then again, if these crossovers are going to continue to print money for Activision and Microsoft, how long until they pick up again with Black Ops 7? History suggests players won’t have to wait long to find out.
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