In current months, there was multiple suggestion from members of the video games trade that Call of Obligation video games are “lazy,” and that the risk of EA’s rival shooter, Battlefield 6, will drive a change in method from Activision. In a current interview with IGN, we put each of these recommendations to Black Ops 7 co-developer Treyarch to get its response.
The studio’s phrases comply with a collection of claims from trade friends that the annualised shooter collection is in want of some wholesome competitors. At this yr’s Summer time Sport Fest, Splitgate 2 director Ian Proulx said that he was “drained of enjoying the identical Call of Obligation yearly.” That sentiment is seemingly shared by former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who posted final week in relation to the most recent Battlefield 6 open beta:
(*7*)Battlefield will boot stomp CoD this yr. However the true win right here is CoD gained’t be lazy anymore, and we’ll all get higher FPS video games for it.
— Mike Ybarra 😇 (@Qwik) August 8, 2025
Talking to IGN forward of Black Ops 7’s Opening Evening Dwell 2025 reveal, affiliate artistic director Miles Leslie mentioned Treyarch tries to shut out the noise and concentrate on delivering the perfect sport potential.
“You simply don’t be concerned about it, proper?” Leslie mentioned when requested concerning the “lazy” claims. “After we begin, it’s not like ‘what are they going to suppose?’ It’s like, we now have a imaginative and prescient, we’re going to hit that imaginative and prescient, and there’s at all times going to be folks which are going to attempt to knock you down and not have optimistic criticism, which we do search for. So, it’s like noise, proper? You attempt to reduce via that and stick to your imaginative and prescient and plan.”
And from what I’ve seen, it actually can be unfair to name this yr’s Call of Obligation lazy. You’ll be able to learn all about it in my full Black Ops 7 preview right here.
As for the risk of Battlefield 6, we requested Leslie if DICE’s sport pushes Treyarch on or even when the developer thinks concerning the sport in any respect. Leslie mentioned he’d performed DICE’s sport however is concentrated squarely on Black Ops 7.
“I received to play this weekend,” he mentioned. “It is a enjoyable sport. We’re followers of all video games and I feel we search for inspiration anyplace. However we’re centered on our personal craft. They’re doing their factor. We all know if we are able to hit our targets, we’re going to ship what the followers need and that is the important thing, as a result of if we’re completely happy after we’re play testing, then we all know followers are going to be completely happy play testing.
“We’re followers of the FPS style. We’re followers of heaps of video games. Let’s all have enjoyable.”
Call of Obligation: Black Ops 7 was revealed at gamescom Opening Evening Dwell 2025.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.