While Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 hasn’t been performing as well as Activision might have hoped, some fans of the franchise are looking forward to the Call of Duty series improving itself in light of the competition it has been facing in recent times. Taking to social media, former Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra has written an encouraging post for the developers behind Call of Duty.
In his post, Ybarra wrote about how competition in the market is often a good thing, and how the success seen by titles like Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders will encourage the developers of Call of Duty to “come back with a vengeance”. He also noted that “We will get a better Call of Duty thanks to Battlefield.”
“Competition is good. I’m rooting for the Call of Duty team to come back with vengeance – for the players and their team. They work incredibly hard and remain very talented,” he wrote.
Interestingly, Ybarra had been one of the earlier critics of the Call of Duty franchise this year, especially in light of the success seen by Battlefield 6’s open beta back in August. At the time, he went as far as to say that the latest entry in the Battlefield franchise “will boot stomp” Call of Duty this year. Even at the time, however, he noted that this will lead to the fact that “Call of Duty won’t be lazy anymore, and we’ll all get better FPS games for it.”
While Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is unlikely to have resulted in a loss for Activision, the title is clearly not in the zeitgeist this time around, unlike its predecessors which have tended to be the subjects of discussion for several months after their release. Industry analysts like Christopher Dring of The Game Business and Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics believe that this is down to the fact that there were some bad decisions made in the development of the game, which also managed to come out in a tough market.
“One reason for the decline is the intense competition from rival shooters, mostly Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders,” explained Elliot. “The new Battlefield title had a massive launch, securing the biggest opening in its franchise’s history. ARC has sold almost 8 million copies so far, and the latest Fortnite Simpsons crossover was a hit. Attention is scarce.”
“Players have expressed growing dissatisfaction with CoD‘s lack of innovation, feeling that the franchise is ailing. The introduction of Fortnite-like cosmetic items like non-military character skins (Beavis and Butthead, Nicki Minaj) has alienated a significant portion of the fanbase who prefer a more grounded military aesthetic. The co-op campaign was a major point of criticism. It was uneven and tedious when played solo, while also requiring an always-online connection. It also drew controversy and ire for its use of AI slop in game.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. Also check out our thoughts on its boss fights. Activision has also recently announced that the franchise wouldn’t go for back-to-back releases in the Modern Warfare or Black Ops series anymore, instead choosing to alternate their releases.
