The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 arrived just over a year after Black Ops 6, but now Activision says that this will be the last back-to-back release set within the same timeline. And the same goes for its Modern Warfare series of games, too. Reports of poor sales of BO7 compared to BO6 may have spurred the change in attitude.

In a message from the Call of Duty team, it is claimed that there are “many” reasons why it is making this change, though the “main” factor is so it can deliver a unique experience every single year. It’s obvious to say that Call of Duty hasn’t really changed its recipe in a long time, regardless of which era the game is set in, though it’s nice to see some kind of variation being enforced.

Activision wants to provide “an absolutely unique experience” every year

This news broke in a recent Call of Duty blog post, which also discloses that Black Ops 7 multiplayer and zombies modes will be getting a free trial, along with a double XP weekend next week. What we’re more interested in, however, is the future of the Call of Duty franchise.

• We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops games. The reasons are many, but the main one is to ensure we provide an absolutely unique experience each and every year.
• We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental. While we aren’t sharing those plans today, we look forward to doing so when the time is right.

Source: Call of Duty

Call of Duty over the years

• Call of Duty – 2003
• Call of Duty 2 – 2005
• Call of Duty 3 – 2006
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – 2007
• Call of Duty: World at War – 2008
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 2009
• Call of Duty: Black Ops – 2010
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 2011
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II – 2012
• Call of Duty: Ghosts – 2013
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – 2014
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III – 2015
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – 2016
• Call of Duty: WWII – 2017
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – 2018
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (reboot) – 2019
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – 2020
• Call of Duty: Vanguard – 2021
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II – 2022
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – 2023
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – 2024
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 – 2025

As you can see above, the 1-2-1 pattern of Black Ops and Modern Warfare games was well established back when the Black Ops timeline. We even had a break from Modern Warfare between the original two games, with the WW2-based World at War wedged between them. Only in the past four releases has Activision switched to a 1-1-2-2 pattern.

It seems like the lackluster BO7 sales have had an effect. It’s also fair to say that the release of Battlefield 6 this year may have dampened the hype for it. Either way, we’re interested to see what the team means when it says it will drive “meaningful” innovation – it seems to point towards future CODs that feel much less copy-and-paste, if we’re lucky.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.