In early August, just days before a major Black Ops 7 preview event in Los Angeles, former Blizzard president and Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra called the Call of Duty franchise "lazy". Posting on X, the veteran exec wrote that EA's upcoming Battlefield 6 would "boot stomp" CoD this year and force the team to make "better FPS games". And with Splitgate 2 head Ian Proulx mocking Call of Duty in his Summer Game Fest presentation just two months ago, it seems the blockbuster series has become the butt of an industry joke about endless franchises. It's not the only flak the 20-year-old brand has drawn. Though it sells millions of copies with each new release (Black Ops 6 was the bestselling game of 2024), accusations of predatory monetisation, pay-to-win skins, swarms of in-game bugs, and the recent use of AI to create in-game, paid-for content have understandably irked many players.

The NRA's news president is current Fox News Contributor Oliver North, but he is widely known for a Reagan-era scandal. Former U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North speaks before giving the Invocation at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum in Dallas, May 4, 2018. Incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North has already grabbed national attention for his take on the root causes of America's mass shooting problem after a Texas high school student killed 10 people in a bloody rampage. The retired Marine lieutenant colonel blamed a "culture of violence" for recent school shootings and implied that the prevalence of prescriptions such as Ritalin for young people could also be a factor during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. But in 2012, North worked as a promoter, script consultant and voice actor for the popular first-person-shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.