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 game has been in beta mode for the last few weeks, meaning that even though it hasn't been officially released, millions of people worldwide have been testing it out online, showering Treyarch with feedback and first impressions. Treyarch is a subsidiary of Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard.

Call of Duty: WWII was a breath of fresh air after the weirdness what was Infinite Warfare. The return to historical battles was a welcome change after a (thankfully) brief trip to space. For 2018, the series is back in the hands of Treyarch, which means a new installment of Black Ops. The studio, along with publisher Activision, already took the wraps off the game a few weeks ago. Perhaps most importantly, the duo revealed that the single-player campaign would be replaced by a PUBG-esque battle royale mode.

A new report claims that the upcoming first-person shooter will focus more on delivering expanded multiplayer modes and the series' popular Zombies mode. Sources say that as the release date for "Black Ops 4" is fast approaching, it has become clear that the development of the single-player campaign wouldn't be completed in time, as first reported by Polygon. One source also claimed that Treyarch, the developer of the new "Call of Duty" game, has shifted its focus on expanding the multiplayer mode and Zombies mode. The cooperative modes are said to function as the stand-in for the usual single-player campaign experience. The news might be a disappointment to a lot of "Call of Duty" fans.