[STEAM] 'Shipping a Major Franchise Like Clockwork Every Year Is a Really Difficult Task' — Microsoft Responds to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Disappointing Launch

[Steam 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Clearly, all is not well in the world of Call of Duty.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

appears to have struggled for players and sales relatively speaking amid tough competition from the likes of EA’s Battlefield 6 and Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders, and coming out just a year after ****** Ops 6.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is yet to announce a player count or a sales figure for ****** Ops 7, nor has it detailed any boost to Game Pass subscriber numbers as a result of its launch. Clearly, it hasn’t met its expectations.

Last month, sales data suggested ****** Ops 7 was struggling not just against rival shooter

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, but also last year’s

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

reported that ****** Ops 7’s European launch saw opening week sales down 63% versus Battlefield 6 during the equivalent launch periods for each shooter, and ****** Ops 7 also down by more than 50% versus ****** Ops 6. All in all, ****** Ops 7 had a “terrible” launch,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Then, in a shock development,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. In a statement attributed to "the Call of Duty team" (Treyarch, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, Raven Software and co.), Activision admitted “that for some of you, the franchise has not met your expectations fully. To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward.”

Activision continued: “We will no longer do back-to-back releases of Modern Warfare or ****** 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.”

Fast forward to this week, and Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has painted a slightly rosier picture. When asked about ****** Ops 7's performance by

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Booty responded to confirm that it's one of the most-played games on Xbox right now, and that he was proud of what the development team was able to achieve. He then said Call of Duty is “its own unique category” because of Activision’s ability to release content via a seasonal model, so the launch isn’t the end of ****** Ops 7’s story.

Here’s the quote in full:

“Right now, it is one of the most-played games on Xbox. And I’m really proud of what the team did, in terms of feature innovation, moving the franchise forward. Shipping a major franchise like clockwork every year is a really difficult task, and I’m really proud of what the team did to move the franchise forward in that way.

“And the interesting thing about Call of Duty is, I think that as an IP, it is really well positioned to continue to deliver content for players going forward; the system of seasons. And it’s not just about the launch, but it’s kind of in its own unique category and ability in terms of how the team keeps delivering content throughout the year. So we’re real happy with where we’ve landed with that.”

Amid the doom and gloom,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

has said Call of Duty (overall) ended 2025 as the number one franchise on Game Pass for total players and hours all year, which perhaps doesn’t come as much of a surprise given this is Call of Duty we’re talking about. But it does show that even when Call of Duty has a bad year relative to previous games in the series, it's still massively popular relative to other games.

Call of Duty is now at something of a crossroads. 2026’s Call of Duty game is almost certainly a continuation of Modern Warfare from Infinity Ward, but what will 2027 bring? ****** Ops 8? Activision’s failure to establish a third Call of Duty sub-brand means that it has become overly reliant on Modern Warfare and ****** Ops to keep the franchise going at the player numbers executives demand. Could

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

take the drastic step of giving Call of Duty a year off to recover from its recent struggles? Given

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

paid $69 billion for Activision Blizzard, it seems unlikely.

As for ****** Ops 7 in the here and now, Activision has promised "unprecedented season support," saying it "won't rest until ****** Ops 7 earns its place as one of the best ****** Ops games we’ve ever made."

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up