Is the current Call of Duty model sustainable?

GAMING NEWS Fyra Frost - 6 hours ago

The Call of Duty team has issued a rare public acknowledgment that their latest release, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, "has not fully met players’ expectations." In an official statement posted on December 9, 2025, the developers outlined plans both to support the current game and to rethink the franchise's release strategy moving forward.

To address immediate concerns, the team will be offering a free trial weekend for Black Ops 7’s Multiplayer and Zombies modes, accompanied by a Double XP event to encourage player engagement. They also promised "unprecedented" seasonal support, pledging that the first live season will be the largest in the series’ history and that updates will continue until the game meets their standards for quality and innovation.

Perhaps the most significant announcement is a major change in release cadence. Going forward, the studio will no longer release back-to-back titles from the same sub-series, such as two consecutive Black Ops or Modern Warfare games. The stated goal is to focus on producing games with “meaningful, not incremental” improvements, signaling a shift from iterative updates to more substantial innovation.

Will it be enough?

This strategic pivot appears driven by multiple factors. First, there is franchise fatigue from the relentless annual release cycle. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched just a year after Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and earlier Modern Warfare entries followed a similar pattern. Second, the game's launch performance was underwhelming, with lower player counts than recent titles and strong competition from other shooters siphoning off audiences. Finally, critical reception and community feedback were notably harsher than usual, with reviewers calling the campaign uneven and underdeveloped, a rare misstep for a franchise known for cinematic single-player experiences.

The move to slow down consecutive sub-series releases is a pragmatic first step, but it may not fully address the underlying challenges of an annualized model. While alternating between sub-series may reduce player fatigue and give developers more time for refinement, the franchise would still deliver a new major release every year. Without deeper changes in development philosophy, there is a risk that future titles could continue to feel rushed or incremental.

The effectiveness of this shift will depend on the team's ability to deliver genuine innovation in gameplay, systems, and content, rather than cosmetic changes or minor live-service updates. The next few Call of Duty releases will serve as a critical test of whether these adjustments are more than a marketing repositioning.

For the franchise, this signals a potential new era: better-polished titles with longer development cycles for each sub-series, but still maintaining a yearly presence in the market. If executed effectively, this could restore both player trust and critical confidence, giving Call of Duty a chance to recover from Black Ops 7’s lukewarm reception. Meanwhile, there are not many alternative choices for the fans of the iconic franchise. Hopefuly, the developer will manage to address most issues that have disappointed the fans as Season One advances. In any case, you can keep track of the best deals to purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at the cheapest price for your platform of choice with our comparator if you can't skip your yearly dose of CoD action.