Treyarch is moving on from Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and it seems like it might be moving on entirely from the Black Ops sub-franchise, according to a new developer video posted to the studio’s official YouTube channel. That wouldn’t be a surprising move considering how poorly received BLOPS 7 was last year, even forcing Activision to basically apologize for it.
On September 16, Treyarch posted a new “Dev Talk” video and confirmed it will be the last one dedicated to Black Ops 7. While this new video was mostly dedicated to the online shooter’s upcoming sixth season, towards the end, Treyarch employees shared some thoughts on stepping away from two years of Black Ops. The studio was the lead developer on 2024’s Black Ops 6 and last year’s Black Ops 7.
“This is a bittersweet goodbye,” said Treyarch design director Kevin Drew. “But I think over the last two years, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve tried a lot of things in our current era. But we’re ready to make something new and something that nobody’s ever experienced before. In the meantime, though, I will see you all playing in Season 6 on September 17th.”
Yale Miller, co–studio head at Treyarch, wrapped the video up and explained that the team was “extremely proud” of what it shipped, explaining that the studio set “new benchmarks with Black Ops 6” and then delivered the ” biggest Black Ops game ever” with BLOPS 7.
It does feel like the team is moving on, but we aren’t sure yet to what. Activision confirmed late last year that it was done releasing back-to-back Black Ops and Modern Warfare entries in the long-running shooter franchise after BLOPS 7 ended up being the worst-selling CoD since 2008. Critics and fans weren’t hugely impressed by the futuristic shooter and its odd open-world campaign and sci-fi missions involving zombies and giant man-eating plants.
The question now is what Treyarch’s next Call of Duty will look like. It seems very likely that when Treyarch returns with its next entry in the series, it won’t be part of the Black Ops franchise. Hopefully the team is able to do something totally different and take a chance on something fresh.
Of course, the next big Call of Duty game is Modern Warfare 4, which is set to launch in October across PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, and PC.