Activision backs down over Call Of Duty skins: ‘That feedback hits home’

Activision backs down over Call Of Duty skins: ‘That feedback hits home’

Complaints around Call Of Duty’s identity and use of skins have been addressed by Activision, although it comes with a major downside.

Call Of Duty is consistently one of the biggest-selling gaming franchises in the world, but such dominance means there’s little incentive for Activision to innovate or acknowledge problems with the annual first person shooter.

The last entry, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, might have been a return to form in some ways, but there’s been a growing backlash against Activision’s approach to microtransactions and skins over recent years.

Between skins for Seth Rogen and Beavis & Butt-Head, there’s concern Call Of Duty is losing its war shooter credentials and turning into a zany house of crossovers akin to Fortnite.

In a blog post on Tuesday, August 26, Activision unexpectedly acknowledged these concerns, by announcing several alterations for the upcoming Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7.

‘We know there’s been a lot of conversation recently about the identity of Call Of Duty,’ the post reads. ‘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. That feedback hits home, and we take it seriously. We hear you.’

Activision goes on to state operators, operator skins, and weapons from Black Ops 6 will no longer carry forward into Black Ops 7, in a reversal of its announcement from a week ago. However, they will still be useable in Warzone.

‘Black Ops 7 needs to feel authentic to Call Of Duty and its setting,’ the post adds. ‘That is why Black Ops 6 operator and weapon content will not carry forward to Black Ops 7. Double XP tokens and GobbleGums will still carry forward, because we recognise your time and progression are important.’

However, Activision didn’t allow content purchased in previous games to carry over to Black Ops 6 either – so that aspect doesn’t really change anything.

In the same post, the publisher goes on to outline how they’re planning to combat cheaters with ‘new detection and mitigation systems’ using their Ricochet anti-cheat software. They also state ‘bundles and items’ in Black Ops 7 ‘will be crafted to fit the Black Ops identity’ – so we presumably won’t be seeing Nicki Minaj again.

‘We hear the feedback,’ they added. ‘We need to deliver a better balance toward the immersive, core Call Of Duty experience.’

While the acknowledgment of these problems can be seen as a positive, we imagine some people who have spent around £20 on the Beavis & Butt-head bundle won’t be happy to have their purchase strictly tied to Warzone in the future.

There’s a question of why Activision is acknowledging this issue now too. Some may interpret this as a reaction to the positive groundswell around the Battlefield 6 beta (which has emphasised that it won’t use goofy skins), but it’s hard to imagine EA’s shooter will threaten Call Of Duty this year in terms of sales.

It might be a sign that pre-orders for Black Ops 7 are lower than usual, or a simple PR move to prevent further backlash, but either way, we wouldn’t bank on Activision’s word of a sea change until we see the evidence.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, is set to launch November 14, 2025.

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