Activision has addressed the poor reception to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7, as it gears up to launch a brand new sub-franchise next year.
Call Of Duty is on the backfoot following last year’s Black Ops 7, which became one of the worst-selling titles in the franchise in recent memory.
Its failure was amplified by the success of Battlefield 6, which dethroned the series in terms of sales for the first time in decades. Shortly after Black Ops 7’s launch, Activision even acknowledged the negativity, promising that it will never release back-to-back Black Ops or Modern Warfare entries ever again.
While it seems like business as usual based on the Modern Warfare 4 beta, Activision has responded to the reception of Black Ops 7 once again, claiming the feedback has led to adjustments in the next entry.
Speaking to The Game Business, Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl said: ‘I don’t think we were happy with every aspect of last year’s game, and we heard the feedback loud and clear.
‘With Modern Warfare 4, we’ve tried to adjust based on that feedback. It’s getting back to a grounded military shooter. Making it cinematic, making it authentic, and bring that edge back that Call Of Duty is known for.’
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The annual development cycles of Call Of Duty games does raise the question of how much they can actually pivot in response to a previous title, but Bahl acknowledges the need for something new – promising that a new sub-franchise is in the works.
‘It was not something that our community was looking for,’ Bahl added in regards to Black Ops 7. ‘They wanted something fresh, and even though there were different time settings and ways to play the game with new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for.
‘So, we’ve already stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise and we’ve already laid the groundwork. But we’re really excited about Modern Warfare 4, and that addresses some of that feedback.’
According to CharlieIntel, next year’s game will be a new sub-franchise from developer Sledgehammer Games. The studio hasn’t led development on a Call Of Duty game since 2023’s Modern Warfare 3, which was widely panned by critics and very blatantly just repurposed DLC.
The last new sub-franchise was 2021’s Call Of Duty: Vanguard, which saw a return to the Second World War. However, it failed to meet Activision’s sales expectations, so it was quickly abandoned.
It’s unclear what a new sub-franchise could do that hasn’t been done before, but there’s a sense that Modern Warfare 4 is the end of an era for Call Of Duty in its current form. Bahl goes on to describe the next game as an ‘epic conclusion’ to the current Modern Warfare series.
‘I don’t want to give any spoilers, but this is going to be the epic conclusion of this recent series of Modern Warfare,’ Bahl added. ‘It’s not that some characters and pieces can’t live on beyond this and be reinvented. But we’re excited by closing this chapter and launching a new one.
‘Where we go with future games, we have to innovate. What we heard from the audience is they want new or better or different. The landscape is changing right under our feet. You’re seeing new games being built overnight, and you’re seeing tastes change and how people want to play.’
Whether this actually translates to an innovative rejuvenation for Call Of Duty remains to be seen, but if it does, Black Ops 7’s shortcomings might, in hindsight, be the best thing that’s happened to the series in a long time.
Modern Warfare 4 is set to launch worldwide on October 23, but if you’ve pre-ordered digitally, you can play the campaign from today (October 16) at 6pm BST.
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