Diego Argüello, Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com

December 10, 2025

2 Min Read

The Call of Duty franchise is ditching back-to-back releases of the Modern Warfare and Black Ops series after Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 didn’t fully meet expectations.

In an announcement penned by "Call of Duty staff," the team says it is aware of the critiques of the latest entry, and promises to "deliver, and overdeliver" on expectations around the franchise moving forward.

This delivery, according to the staff, comprises the following items. For starters, Black Ops 7 is hosting a free trial next week, as the team wants people to "experience the game firsthand and decide for yourselves." Long term, the team says that player feedback will "help shape our seasonal updates over the coming months," committing to "unprecedented seasonal support."

At the core of the announcement, the team outlines a different strategy for the future of the franchise. Regarding the back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare and Black Ops games, the developers said that the reasons to change course are "many," but the main one is to "ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience" every year.

"We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental," reads the update. "While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right."

Related:Major shareholder denounces Square Enix for ‘sluggish’ revenue and profit margins

As a closing note, the team believes the best days of Call of Duty are "ahead of us given the depth and talent of our development teams."

U.S. congressman criticized the alleged AI use in Black Ops 7

Despite the depth and talent of development teams, Black Ops 7 was criticized over alleged use of AI-generated imagery. Among the people calling it out was U.S. congressman Ro Khanna, who said that there’s a need for regulations that prevent companies from using AI to "eliminate jobs to extract greater profits."

"Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed. They should share in the profits. And there should be a tax on mass displacement," Khanna said. Throughout 2025, game developers have not been warming up to generative AI. Moreover, some devs think that the quality of games will worsen because of it.

In March of this year, Activision Blizzard used generative AI to create online ads for games that did not actually exist, displaying titles like Crash Bandicoot Brawl and Call of Duty: Zombie Defender on Instagram. This happened two months after court filings revealed that the company spent almost $1.8 billion developing three Call of Duty titles, and that’s without taking marketing costs into consideration.

Related:Take-Two hires Perfect Dark studio leads for new team

At the time of publication, Black Ops 7 is sitting on Mostly Negative on the Steam store page with 1,422 user reviews. Meanwhile, Paramount is planning to honor the "one-in-a-million brand" with a Call of Duty film, which is currently in the works.

About the Author

Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com

Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for places like The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, and more. He also runs Into the Spine, a site dedicated to fostering and supporting new writers, and co-hosted Turnabout Breakdown, a podcast about the Ace Attorney series. He’s most likely playing a rhythm game as you read this.