The same development team of Raven Software and Treyarch is making Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 which made Black Ops 6, but fear not, they’ve had longer than a year to turn it around. In fact, production of Call of Duty’s latest began at the exact same moment as last year’s release.
“They were started at the same time”, reveals associate creative director, Miles Leslie. “So obviously they have different production ramp-up times, but they were started in parallel and greenlit at the same time. That was a really unique challenge, but also fun to be able to know that you’re going to do that. Black Ops 6 is going to be 1991 rogue team, and now how do you flip the script on Black Ops 7 in 2035?”
That side-by-side development process has, in theory, allowed for this year’s COD to build on the impressive foundations installed by 2024’s — not only when it comes to the campaign’s story, but mechanically too. “Yeah, you get the payoffs”, lead narrative producer Natalie Pohorski confirms. “And a lot of the things that we innovated on with Black Ops 6, you’re going to see in Black Ops 7, and so it’s a great connector.”
The news that BLOPS 7 isn’t the tight turnaround for the team that it may have initially appeared will be surely be of relief to fans of the series, especially when considering the much-maligned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 campaign suffered from a truncated development process, reportedly starting life as DLC before being rushed into a full campaign by Sledgehammer Games. The news that this year’s has been in the works for many years is far more promising, especially for fans of the single-player mode.
For now, you can check out my full preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. For more from the devs, check out their thoughts on Call of Duty being called ‘lazy’, the proliferation of “goofy skins”, and how generative AI is being used in Black Ops.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
