Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Falls Short — A New Direction for the Franchise

The studios behind the development of **Call of Duty** have announced a significant restructuring of the franchise. The team acknowledged that some players are dissatisfied with the current state of the series, which has prompted developers to pledge a reevaluation of their approach to annual releases.

In a statement on their official website, the creators admitted to fans’ frustration regarding the quality of **Call of Duty: Black Ops 7**, which didn’t launch as strongly as its predecessors. The developers emphasized that they are listening to feedback and are committed to making **Call of Duty** great again.

**Call of Duty Team**

The primary change involves halting the consecutive release of multiple games within the same sub-series. The creators explained that they want to provide players with a «unique experience» rather than yet another iteration of a familiar formula.

**Call of Duty Team**

Over the past eight years, only one major release—**Call of Duty: Vanguard**—was not part of the two main sub-series. In contrast, in the previous decade, **Activision** released four original **CoD** titles: **Call of Duty: Ghosts**, **Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare**, **Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare**, and **Call of Duty: WWII**. Meanwhile, **Black Ops 7**, which debuted last month, received a score of 66 on **Metacritic** for consoles and 67 for PC. The only game rated lower was **Modern Warfare III** from 2023.

Despite plans to refresh the format, the studios are asking players to give **Black Ops 7** a chance. The team describes the game as a spiritual successor to **Black Ops II** and assures that they have poured significant effort into this project. Next week, players will be invited to participate in a free trial, allowing them to experience the multiplayer and zombie modes with double XP.

It seems that **Activision** is beginning to realize that under the current trajectory, the series is unlikely to thrive and generate immense profits for **Microsoft**.

As a reminder, according to GSD data, sales of **Black Ops 7** in Europe were more than 60% lower than those of its predecessor. Analysts from **Ampere** also reported that over a quarter of the active **Call of Duty** audience transitioned to **Battlefield 6** in October. However, due to the game’s inclusion in the Game Pass subscription, the actual number of players for **Black Ops 7** may be significantly higher than the sales figures suggest.

Players will have the opportunity to try out **Call of Duty: Black Ops 7** for free on PC (via [Steam](https://stopgame.ru/to?https%3A%2F%2Fstore.steampowered.com%2Fapp%2F3606480%2FCall_of_Duty_Black_Ops_7%2F), [Microsoft Store](https://stopgame.ru/to?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xbox.com%2Fen-US%2Fgames%2Fstore%2Fcall-of-duty-black-ops-7%2F9plbm5790l94), [Battle.net](https://stopgame.ru/to?https%3A%2F%2Fus.shop.battle.net%2Fen-us%2Fproduct%2Fcall-of-duty-black-ops-7%23optLogin%3Dtrue)), Xbox, and PlayStation, featuring text translation in Russian.