As Activision gets ready for the November 14 release date for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, associate creative director of the title, Treyarch’s Miles Leslie, has responded to long-standing accusations that the Call of Duty franchise has gotten lazy. Some in the industry has even go as far as saying that the franchise faces a real threat from Battlefield 6 this year. In an interview with IGN, Leslie spoke about how the studio’s approach to developing Black Ops 7 has been to not worry about these accusations.
“You just don’t worry about it, right?” Leslie said. “When we start, it’s not like ‘what are they going to think?’ It’s like, we have a vision, we’re going to hit that vision, and there’s always going to be people that are going to try to knock you down and not have positive criticism, which we do look for. So, it’s like noise, right? You try to cut through that and stick to your vision and plan.”
As for what the studio thinks about EA’s upcoming Battlefield 6, Leslie spoke about how the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 developers played the open betas, and how they are fans of all games. Regardless of what Battlefield might be doing, however, Treyarch wants to focus on making its own game.
“I got to play this weekend,” he said. “It’s a fun game. We’re fans of all games and I think we look for inspiration anywhere. But we’re focused on our own craft. They’re doing their thing. We know if we can hit our goals, we’re going to deliver what the fans want and that’s the key, because if we’re happy when we’re play testing, then we know fans are going to be happy play testing.”
“We’re fans of the FPS genre. We’re fans of lots of games. Let’s all have fun.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 got an official reveal trailer during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live earlier this week. The trailer showcased some gameplay, while also giving us a hint about the story that will likely include some mind-bending levels for players to fight through. The campaign of the title is also confirmed to feature support for co-op play for up to four players together.
Alongside the campaign, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will also feature other game modes that you might expect, including Zombies, the return of the Dead Ops Arcade mode, and some post-story content in the form of Endgame which will push players to their limits as they fight strong enemies across Avalon.
Treyarch has also confirmed that development on Black Ops 7 actually started alongside work on last year’s Black Ops 6. Leslie said that both of the titles were greenlit at around the same time, with their development happening in parallel. He also spoke about the unique challenges of integrating the story of Black Ops 6 with the upcoming Black Ops 7, the latter having a story that will take place in the year 2035.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
