Well, last week, Activision quietly shadow-dropped the original Call of Duty: Black Ops and its sequel, Black Ops 2, onto the PlayStation Store for both PS4 and PS5. There was no major showcase, no extended marketing campaign, and barely any advance warning. Under normal circumstances, the releases might have passed unnoticed, but the sudden arrival of two entries immediately caught people’s attention. At first, the news sounded genuinely intriguing. These are Call of Duty games that many players (unfortunately) would have wanted on modern PlayStation hardware for years, especially with their campaigns and other gameplay features intact. For a brief moment, it seemed like Activision had delivered an easy win. After all, how badly could anyone mishandle two old games? As it turns out, quite badly.

Let’s begin with the most obvious problem: the pricing, which is frankly atrocious. Each game costs a staggering $39.99, while its respective Season Pass adds another $29.99 to the bill (PS Plus subscribers get a discount). Purchase both titles alongside all of their DLC at the standard price, and you are looking at roughly $140 + in total. That would already be difficult to justify for newly released games, let alone two titles that originally launched in 2010 and 2012. Activision is effectively asking players to spend premium money on games that are nearly a decade and a half old, without bundling their additional content or offering the kind of substantial modernization that might soften the blow. These are age old games, certainly, but nostalgia alone does not magically make that price reasonable. A round of applause for such remarkable generosity, everyone? No? Fair enough. Let’s move on.

Activision has tried to frame its new Season Pass model as a win for everyone. By allowing Season Pass owners to seamlessly matchmake with players who didn’t buy the DLC, the company avoids the fractured player base that slowly killed playlists in previous Call of Duty games. That’s an improvement but it also makes the entire business model look even harder to defend. If everyone shares the same matchmaking pool, public lobbies will almost always default to the base-game maps whenever non-paying players are present. In other words, Activision is asking its most dedicated fans to spend $29.99 on content the matchmaking system is actively incentivized not to serve. The company has eliminated the problem of dead DLC playlists, but only by creating a new one: premium maps that are effectively sidelined in everyday play. It’s a pricing strategy that feels stuck in a bygone era, charging a premium for content that many buyers may rarely experience outside of private matches or the occasional lucky rotation.

That fragmentation becomes even more concerning because the ports offer no cross-play with Xbox or PC. Instead of bringing the players under one roof, Activision has divided it by platform and console generation. For games this old, that is a recipe for longer queues, repeated opponents, and increasingly empty lobbies once the launch-period excitement fades.

The two ports are also painfully barebones from a technical standpoint. In 2026, players are being treated to a dazzling 1080p presentation, with no FOV slider, no 120fps option, no meaningful graphics settings, and no substantial visual enhancements to speak of. In other words, these are old games running at a slightly cleaner resolution, with almost none of the modern conveniences players reasonably expect from a rerelease on current hardware. Nothing ambitious, nothing transformative, and certainly nothing that justifies the asking price.

The problems do not end there. Black Ops 1 reportedly arrives without Wager Matches and Theatre Mode, while Black Ops 2 appears to have lost League Play, features that formed parts of the original experience. Players have also raised concerns about noticeable controller input delay in Black Ops 1 on PS5. Several Reddit users argue that the game feels far less responsive than they remember, with some regretting their purchase entirely. Others have taken a more sarcastic view, joking that technical problems simply make the port feel authentic to the original launch. Honestly, that reaction feels about right.

What makes the situation even more interesting, or, depending on your perspective, downright hilarious, is that these supposedly enhanced ports are currently exclusive to PlayStation. Activision is owned by Microsoft, yet Xbox players have been completely overlooked when it comes to receiving comparable native versions, technical improvements, or meaningful modernization. The existing Xbox releases remain playable through backward compatibility, but that is not the same as receiving newly packaged ports built for current-generation hardware.

It creates an incredibly strange situation in which a Microsoft-owned publisher is offering updated versions of two Call of Duty games to PlayStation users while giving its own Xbox audience practically nothing new. That is one impressive way to frustrate an already exhausted fan base, particularly after everything that has unfolded around Xbox over the past month. At a time when Microsoft desperately needs to rebuild trust and give players reasons to remain invested in its ecosystem, decisions like this only make the company’s wider strategy appear even more confused.

According to several players, the situation is even messier than it first appeared. Reports have surfaced of “Server Full” errors, crashes when leaving lobbies, failed invitations, broken party functionality, and friends being unable to join one another consistently. For games this old, these are not minor inconveniences. Not to mention hacking problems! They strike directly at the experience people are paying to access.

And what about players who already purchased the original PS3 versions? Apparently, that ownership counts for absolutely nothing. There is no free upgrade path, no discounted entitlement, and no recognition that some fans have already paid for these games before. If they want to play them natively on PS5, they are expected to open their wallets and purchase them all over again.

To be fair, some fans undoubtedly will buy this experience, and they are perfectly entitled to purchase them. However, charging this much for such a technically limited and unreliable presentation in 2026 feels deeply disrespectful. If this is Activision’s idea of thoughtful preservation and genuine modernization, then I have no hope for their future releases.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

But despite initially mixed reports, it seems that cross-gen multiplayer is available, according to the Call of Duty Updates Twitter. Players on PS4 and PS5 can’t match with those on PS3, if it weren’t obvious enough, nor can they play with those on other platforms like PC. On the bright side, at least those who own the Season Pass can matchmake with those who don’t, so there’s no worry about a split player base.

Of course, it doesn’t really address pricing – currently $19.99 for PlayStation Plus subscribers, it will increase to $39.99 per game after August 6th. In the same vein, each Season Pass costs $9.89 and will increase to $19.99 on the same date.

Given that the next mainline Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4, is out in October, it may not be all that worthwhile to revisit the classics in a month or two since the player base could drop.

Besides serving as the newest mainline Spyro since Year of the Dragon (we don’t talk about the reboots), it promises to be the first entry to offer true free-flying. Speaking to Kinda Funny Games, associate creative director Louis Studdert revealed more details on how that would work. Long story short, don’t expect to leave it on autopilot and cruise along.

“We wanted to make sure that it is active. It is decision-making. It is pressing buttons. It is almost, you know, that platforming feel of evaluating a play space and figuring out how to continue.”

You can flap Spyro’s wings by pressing a button, which helps maintain his speed, but diving down can provide a sizable increase (though you can also fly through sky rings mid-flight). Igniting a site with his fire breath will also create wind updrafts for more altitude.

“It’s really about evaluating the play space. It’s looking at what you can interact with and connecting all of those to sustain your momentum and to keep going,” said Studdert.

Studio head Paul Yan added, “It’s super important for us that the player is able to say, ‘Look at that thing off in the distance. How do I get there? And then how do I leverage the environments around me and my abilities to do that?’ Because what we don’t want is for it to be a flight simulator where we say, ‘Okay, here’s the destination, hit in the GPS, we’re going to coast and get there.’ There’s no fun in that.”

He also subscribed to the lack of an “autopilot” option. “Platforming as a term in this flight space is a little bit different than platforming like jumping on the ground, but similarly, we want that kind of decision-making to happen in that space.” Whether the controls will offer that promised “zen-like fluidity” remains to be seen, but we’re still a ways off from release, so expect even more gameplay in the coming months.

Spyro: A Realm Beyond will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 in Spring 2027.

They weren’t accompanied by any fanfare, and might have slipped under the radar if their presence wasn’t such a surprise. But a look at the feature list on offer helped with that, as there are reportedly no dedicated servers, so good luck in case of any lag. Also, as noted by reports such as Charlie Intel’s, there issues with consistent 60 FPS gameplay, no 120Hz or FoV options, mixed reports about 4K output, shared progress and cross-platform play limited to between the PS4 and PS5, and a few other notable omissions that one might overlook if it weren’t for that $40 price tag on each of them.

Of course, there’s a $20 discount on that asking price for PS Plus subscribers until August 6, 2026, while the $30 Season Pass gets similarly discounted to $10. These might seem like a decent deal if you really want to relive the glory days of the franchise. However, having to pay extra for the Season Passes (which is necessary if you want all the maps) comes across as pretty greedy on Activision’s part.

“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox,” said Sharma. “Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

Sharma noted that Xbox had been operating “at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” She also highlighted the challenges of the current console generation, and how Xbox had not grown as quickly as expected.

“As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset Xbox.”

Compulsion Games and Double Fine will return to being independent and maintain their IP along with “runway” for their next games. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs will be under new ownership and complete Senua and State of Decay 3 respectively. Meanwhile, Arkane Studios will undergo consultation and “review potential strategic options” with its Works Council.

Otherwise, you can expect Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, Mojang, Xbox Game Studios and King to face varying reductions. Xbox will also be “shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects,” but no publicly announced first-party titles will be cancelled.

“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.

“We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.”

It’s a massive shift for Xbox, and one that’s bound to have consequences for the industry as a whole. Keep in mind that none of this even addresses the issues that the company will face with its next-gen console, Project Helix, especially as memory and storage costs continue to skyrocket. The rumors about the lack of a disc drive, especially with PlayStation announcing the end of physical discs for new titles starting from January 2028, hasn’t helped either. As always, stay tuned for more updates.

Interestingly, it looks like Activision and Microsoft realized their mistake quite quickly, and a quick search through Meta’s Ad Library indicates that it has since been taken down. Reports have indicated, however, that the ads began running over the weekend, starting on June 27th, and were spread around across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Xbox had announced that the subscription price for Game Pass Ultimate would be going down from $29.99 to $22.99 in April. The announcement came after plenty of backlash against a price hike from back in October 2025. Chief strategy officer Matthew Ball later revealed in an interview that the service had lost “millions of subscribers” when prices were raised.

Interestingly, more recent reports have indicated that Game Pass as a whole might be seeing an upheaval, especially when it comes to third-party games. According to Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani, developers had discussed getting “the rug pulled out from under them” when it came to their Game Pass deals. While Jorjani doesn’t think that the service is ending by any means, he does believe that some of the last third-party Game Pass deals might have been signed, at least for now.

First-party games might be facing similar issues if analysts are to be believed. Following Xbox’s confirmation that Call of Duty games would stop showing up on Game Pass on day one of their release, Ampere Analysis’ Piers Harding-Rolls spoke about how the company might decide to pull more of its first-party releases from the service.

“This is still a core piece of the offer,” he wrote, referring to the value offered by day-one Xbox games releasing on Game Pass. “However, this opens the door to potential windowing of other new 1st-party releases.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was officially unveiled back in May. The title is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 23rd and features a new story that revolves around North Korea invading South Korea, turning the entire peninsula into a warzone. Modern Warfare 4 will star a new protagonist – Private Park – who eventually gets to meet Captain Price, who seems to be on his own mission after cutting ties with Task Force 141.

Recently, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma spoke about how the Call of Duty franchise is one of the biggest in the world, even when compared with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “If you think about it, we’ve got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout]; Minecraft was top 5 in 2025; Call of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, it all measures. [There’s] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before,” she said.

While half of the top 10 list in the US were new releases for the month, the other half was made up of older games, like Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, MLB: The Show 26, Crimson Desert, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Mario Kart World.

When taking the whole year into account, Resident Evil Requiem continues to take the top spot for game sales in the US. It is followed by Crimson Desert in second place and MLB: The Show 26 in third place. Despite being a relatively new release, 007 First Light has managed to do incredibly well by taking the fourth spot for the entire year so far, followed by Forza Horizon 6 in fifth. LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the only new release to have broken through the top 10 sales for the year, coming in at 7th place.

007 First Light ended up getting quite a few accolades for its performance in May 2026, being the best-selling PlayStation game for the month, as well as the highest “full game dollar sales” of any James Bond game in history.

All in all, Piscatella has reported that total video game spending in the US for May 2026 hit $4.2 billion, which marks a 3 percent increase over May 2025. By the time the month was over, the year-to-date spending was 4 percent higher than last year, coming in at $23 billion.

Interestingly, Piscatella has noted that consoles served as the primary platform for game spending in May 2026 in the US, with total spending having gone up by 25 percent compared to last year. When taking year-to-date figures, console content spending is 13 percent higher. PC and subscriptions haven’t fallen behind either, coming in at 15 percent and 11 percent year-on-year increases, respectively.

Piscatella has also revealed details about console hardware sales in the US for May 2026, noting that both PlayStation and Xbox haven’t been doing too well. While it was the first May faced by PlayStation since 2000, Piscatella has confirmed that May 2026 was the worst May for Xbox since Microsoft launched the division. While there are likely many reasons for console sales falling in this regard, Piscatella also brought up the fact that price hikes have led to consoles simply getting too expensive. Xbox, for example, saw a 22 percent increase in average hardware price since 2025. PlayStation, on the other hand, saw an increase of 33 percent year-on-year.

“Xbox is currently tracking a distant third in hardware sales among the major manufacturers. But they are getting more revenue from each unit sold, enough to make dollar sales grow in May despite the unit drop,” said Piscatella. “If that fits the definition of ‘working’ or not, I don’t know.”

May 2026 U.S. Projected Top 10 Best-Selling Games Ranked on Physical & Full Game Digital Dollar Sales (Excludes Mobile and Digital Add-On Content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.576Z

YTD 2026 U.S. Projected Top 10 Best-Selling Games Ranked on Physical & Full Game Digital Dollar Sales (Excludes Mobile and Digital Add-On Content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.577Z

Content – Console drove content spending growth in May. Total spending on console content increased by 25% compared to a year ago and is now 13% higher year-to-date. PC content (+15% versus a year ago) and subscription spending (+11%) also grew in May.

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.585Z

Content – 007 First Light was May’s leader in full game dollar sales, debuting as the 4th best-seller of 2026 year-to-date. It also led all titles in full game dollar sales on PlayStation platforms in the month.

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.586Z

Booty noted that Xbox has “over 20 franchises that have made a billion dollars, lifetime.” He went on to speak about the responsibility he feels to “shepherd” these franchises. “We’re the stewards of that IP. We’re not the owners, because really, the communities own those.”

Sharma, in turn, spoke about just how massive Xbox’s franchises have been in recent times, especially when it comes to cross-media properties like Amazon’s Fallout series and the Minecraft movie. As for games, she also spoke about the massive success of the Call of Duty franchise.

“You won’t see us try to become the biggest linear provider in the world or anything like that, but I think great games are culture, and culture is entertainment,” said Sharma. “If you think about it, we’ve got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout], Minecraft was top 5 in 2025, Call of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, it all measures. [There’s] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before.”

Booty also spoke about Netflix’s live-action Gears of War film adaptation that is currently in production, being directed by David Leitch (The Fall Guy, Bullet Train), and written by Jon Spaihts. The film’s story will revolve around the origins of Delta Squad, which has been described as “a ragtag crew of soldiers who wage a desperate war for survival against the Locust, a race of subterranean creatures set on destroying humanity.”

Booty spoke about how the core of the Gears franchise has been about the bonds between the various team members that the games focus on. “When you go visit the studio, their tagline is ‘Never Fight Alone.’ So when you think about that for a dramatic narrative, it’s a pretty good starting point.”

However, when asked if Halo might ever see another adaptation after the poor reception of the one produced by Paramount+, Booty didn’t quite commit to any solid plans for the future. He did, however, talk about the franchise being one of the most important ones for Xbox.

“Halo, first and foremost, is one of our biggest franchises,” he said. “It’s iconic to Xbox, and we’re certainly going to invest going forward.”

As for Sharma, she spoke about how her first job as CEO of Xbox would be to learn about the division, its past, and how it became the company that it is known as today. “I’m learning a lot about the brilliance of our artists and what it takes to make a game — and not just a game that is beautiful, but a game that is just so deep with characters and worlds and has potential to invite millions, if not tens of millions of players,” she said.

Toys for Bob has discussed this before, but in an interview with GamesRadar, associate creative director Lou Studdert said the team is aiming for “a zen-like fluidity; we want chaining of moves and exploration – for you to really be interacting with the environment as this quadruped who is its own unique beast.” It’s all for the sake of enabling players to seamlessly transition between exploration on the ground and in the skies.

And it’s far from a gimmick. “Honing in on that feeling, that experience, has been our north star. We want to push the sense of wonder, adventure, and awe that this franchise uniquely delivers,” said Studdert.

But is there a danger of diverting too far from what made the original trilogy, which Toys for Bob remade to great success? Studdert points to the studio’s experience with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. “What we like to do when we start working on a new project, especially if it is an established IP, is to really hone in on what emotions it brings out.”

Studio head Paul Yan added, “That tension is so real, right? I’m proud of the team. They are thinking that through very thoughtfully, and listening to the community as we do. Because you have these two extremes: If you stick too much to nostalgia, then you basically just rehash what’s been done before; and on the other extreme, if you innovate too much, then all of a sudden players don’t recognize the series anymore.”

Thankfully, those who enjoyed the Reignited Trilogy should feel right at home with A Realm Beyond. “We learned a lot during the development of Reignited,” continued Yan. “We’ve carried a lot of those lessons forward into A Realm Beyond – and obviously they are very different projects; we aren’t recreating classics this time. But we’ve built up a confidence in our instincts for what feels tonally right for this character, and I can’t wait for fans to see the direction we’re taking the series in.”

Spyro: A Realm Beyond launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. For more details on how the flight mechanics work and how Toys for Bob is designing its worlds around the same, head here.

With Gordon stepping down after having worked at Treyarch for 22 years, the studio has announced that Kevin Hendrickson and Yale Miller will be stepping up as its new co-studio heads.

Gordon’s departure from the company comes at a time of relative stability for Treyarch, since the company isn’t working on this year’s entry in the Call of Duty franchise. However, its last title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, was critically-panned, and reports have indicated that Activision has also been quite disappointed in its commercial performance.

As for this year, the next Call of Duty title is going to be the Infinity Ward-developed Modern Warfare 4. The title was unveiled in May, and is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is slated for release on October 23rd, with advanced access to the campaign beginning on October 16th. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that this will be the first entry in the Call of Duty franchise to skip the PS4 and Xbox One as target platforms since the 2013 release of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

The story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will revolve around a conflict on the Korean peninsula, with North Korea invading South Korea. The player takes on the role of South Korean soldier Private Park, who will get to meet Captain Price. Interestingly, the captain is noted as being in a “personal war” of his own, having cut ties with Task Force 141. Among the locations players will get to visit throughout the single-player campaign will be Paris, New York, and Mumbai.

Since the Call of Duty franchise is known for its multiplayer gameplay, Infinity Ward has been paying extra attention to how it feels to play during intense matches. The studio recently gave us a look at how the game’s movement will work in multiplayer, giving players the ability to run, sprint, vault over obstacles, slide over the hood of cars, and stay prone. Lead of multiplayer design, Jacky Reynolds, spoke about the new movement options feeling natural and intuitive. Co-studio lead Mark Grigsby noted that the movement options were a way for Infinity Ward to address the criticisms faced by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

“We got kind dinged on Modern Warfare 2 with our movement, where we took some things away,” said Grigsby. “So, for this project, we were like, ‘we need to make some adjustments.’”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will also mark the return of the extraction shooter game mode DMZ. For more on that, check out the gameplay trailer released earlier this month. Also take a look at how the studio has been paying attention to the extraction shooter genre.