While you should expect Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to remain one of the better selling games of the year, all signs suggest it’s seriously underperformed by series standards.
That prompted notorious franchise snoop The Ghost of Hope to make some startling revelations on social media this week.
As part of a lengthy post on X (or Twitter), he claimed the latest game’s financial performance is way “below expectations”, which were already lowered last year after Black Ops 6 supposedly “fell off a cliff”.
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube166k
The sneak added that Microsoft – which acquired Activision as part of an unprecedented $69 billion buyout – wants a “smoother revenue stream and a reduced expenditure pattern”, which he alleges the company could try to achieve through “studio mergers and a complete rethink of monetisation models”.
But when presented with this information by Charlie Intel, senior Activision and Xbox reps countered that both teams “are completely aligned on investing in the future of Call of Duty and innovating for the community”.
The sources apparently added that The Ghost of Hopes claims “are not accurate”.
This prompted the insider to respond to the message with a sequence of laughing emojis, suggesting he stands by his report. Asked if he had a source for his claims, he stated confidently: “Quite a few.”
Whoever’s telling the truth here, it’s clear that Black Ops 7 is shaping up to be something of a disaster by Call of Duty standards.
Not only does the game have a 67 Metacritic rating and an even worse 1.6 user rating, but Activision recently made an unprecedented statement, acknowledging that the franchise has “not met your expectations recently”.
As part of that message, it said it would never do back-to-back sub-series releases again, and that it aims to “overdeliver” in the future.
The problem is that Call of Duty faced intense competition from Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders this year, and it will go head-to-head with the even bigger GTA 6 next year.
We would also add that the series’ marketing has seemed significantly weaker since Sony stopped footing the bill on that front, and Xbox Game Pass has also eaten into the title’s full-price sales.
So, there’s clearly some real turbulence for new owners Microsoft to navigate here, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how things shake out.
What do you think Call of Duty needs to do to stop its rot? Let us know in the comments section below.