Ex-Call of Duty designer "who survived the crunch" in order to launch Black Ops 1 & 2 calls out executives "raking it in" from sales of remasters

A former long-time Call of Duty developer has called out Activision executives profiteering from the re-release of games like Black Ops 1 and 2, whereas the developers who contributed "blood, sweat, and tears" to make them gained nothing.

Gavin Goslin worked at Treyarch for more than 15 years as a level artist and level designer, and in a LinkedIn post reacting to low effort re-releases of Black Ops 1 & 2 this year, said: "They are printing money off of work completed over a decade ago.

"As a developer who actually worked on both BO1 and BO2, seeing these charts is bittersweet. I poured my life into those games, spending countless, brutal hours in crunch alongside an incredibly talented team to make sure they were perfect. Seeing our blood, sweat, and tears still dominating the charts in 2026 is amazing, but it's hard to watch the suits rake in giant financial windfalls from our old code while the actual creators don't see a dime of it."

The post was subsequently picked up by various gaming websites - a recirculation Goslin reacted to in a separate post on LinkedIn today. "I am glad this critical conversation is gaining traction," Goslin said.

"To watch executives rake in massive financial windfalls off our old code, while the actual creators face unemployment and don't see a dime of that new compensation, highlights a fundamental flaw in how our industry values its talent," Goslin added. "If legacy games are going to print money for publishers in 2026, legacy rewards and protections need to exist for the developers who survived the crunch to build them."

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 & 2 re-releases, released in July, were reportedly a huge success for Activision and owner Microsoft, selling something like 11 million copies and raking in nearly $450m. This is despite the fact they are not remasters but simple re-releases. US data-tracker Circana not only highlighted Black Ops 1 & 2 as the highest earning game in July, but called it the fifth highest-earning game of the year. It's a remarkable success for simply re-issuing these roughly 15-year-old games.

Meanwhile, the new Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 4, prepares for release this Friday, 23rd October, buoyed by a very positive reaction to its campaign, by players with pre-order early access to the game. We're in the process of reviewing the game and will share our thoughts soon.