‘Call Of Duty’ Scraps “Back-To-Back” Games, Says Future Releases Will Be “Meaningful, Not Incremental”
In a development as unsurprising as Black Ops 7‘s drug-induced, Arkham Asylum Scarecrow-style boss battle was eye-rolling, Activision Blizzard has announced that they will be moving away from Call of Duty‘s “back-to-back” release model and making a pointed effort to ensure that each future series entry has a justified reason behind its green-lighting.
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This shake-up for the long-standing FPS franchise was announced on December 9th via a blog post published to the game’s official website, itself opening with the admission that while “Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less,” they were aware “that for some of you, the Franchise has not met your expectations fully.”
“To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward,” clarified the team, as consisting of devs from Activision Blizzard’s subsidiary Treyarch and Raven Software studios. “With respect to Black Ops 7, we set our sights to deliver a spiritual successor to Black Ops 2 and the studios have poured their passion into making a great game that all of us are very proud of. But it’s one thing for us to say it, more importantly it’s up to you to try it and judge for yourselves.”
Seeking to reassure fans understandably skeptical of their promises, the Call of Duty team then detailed three specific initiatives they would be embarking upon in order to help rehabilitate the franchise’s current public perception as an annual rehash machine, as consisting of:
- An open play, Double XP weekend for Black Ops 7‘s multiplayer and Zombies modes, as set to take place from Dec. 19th-21st , in order to let the public “experience the game firsthand and decide [their opinions] for yourselves.”
- A commitment to “unprecendentd seasonal support”, as based on ensuring that “Your continuing feedback will help shape our seasonal updates over the coming months,” and making sure that “Black Ops 7 earns its place as one of the best Black Ops games we’ve ever made.
- And finally, the aforementioned changing of their current release cadence.
Elaborating on this scheduling shift, the Call of Duty team explained, “We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games. The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.
“We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental,” they added. “While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.”
Wrapping with another reassurance regarding the franchise’s future, the devs ultimately declared, “To be clear, the future of Call of Duty is very strong and we believe our best days are ahead of us given the depth and talent of our development teams. We have been building the next era of Call of Duty, and it will deliver precisely on what you want along with some surprises that push the Franchise and the genre forward. We look forward to welcoming you in, listening to you, and moving forward together.”
Interestingly, this announcement marks the second time this year that Call of Duty has admitted to needing a significant retooling to its overall creative direction.
Ahead of Black Ops 7‘s launch this past November, the dev team walked back their previous decision to carry over Black Ops 6‘s more outlandish and cartoony skins to its successor, specifically as they realized the need for the new game “to feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting.”
“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 recognize your time and progression are important,” they explained. “This change applies only to Black Ops 7. Call of Duty: Warzone is not affected, and all your Black Ops 6 content stays usable there.”
