A senior developer from Call of Duty studio Treyarch has admitted worry over series fatigue, as Black Ops 7 arrives next month just one year after the last game.
Typically, Call of Duty games are released annually on a rotating basis, alternating between Modern Warfare and Black Ops. But this year, Black Ops 7 follows on from last year’s Black Ops 6 – though it’s not the first time, as two Modern Warfare games arrived back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.
“I think the honest answer is yes. I worry about that,” said senior director of production Yale Miller when asked by CharlieIntel (thanks Dexerto) about the games being viewed as too similar.
“Obviously, there was a plan with the two MW games and then this. We’ll see what the franchise does in the future. We’re excited about the opportunities it gave us, but we’d all be dead lying if we said we weren’t worried about that.”
Though part of the same world, Black Ops 6 was set in the ’90s while this year’s game is set in 2035 for a near-future tone, which should provide an opportunity to differentiate.
“We’re absolutely going to bring it from a content perspective in our live seasons,” said Miller. “How can we have new gameplay experiences? More content, more maps, weeklies, with functional stuff like deeper weapon prestige experiences.”
At yesterday’s Xbox Tokyo Game Show Broadcast, two Black Ops 7 multiplayer maps were revealed inspired by Japan. Toshin is a Japanese metropolis with neon-lit streets and a cat cafe, while Den is a Japanese castle.
More multiplayer details were revealed earlier this week in a lengthy blog post, while a trailer for its zombie mode was released yesterday (see above).
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 promises to be the “most mind-bending” game in the series yet. Tyler Bahl, head of Activision Publishing Marketing previously stated the back-to-back releases also gives players “a bit more time to enjoy all the live seasons and provide players more of what they want across Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone before we turn the page to Black Ops 7.”
