Highlights
- Activision is ending the back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops releases each year.
- The change follows BO7’s poor reception and the community’s rising fatigue for similar titles.
- Activision announced BO7’s free trial and double XP for new players in multiplayer and zombies mode.
The not-so-good reception of Black Ops 7 and the community’s fatigue with back‑to‑back sequels have pushed Activision to change its release strategy for future Call of Duty games.
Activision, on 9 Dec, 2025, announced via a blog post that it is the right time to end the back-to-back releases of the titles of the CoD franchise in consecutive years, even though annual Call of Duty releases will continue.
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From now on, we will not see the rotating pattern from one Black Ops to the next Modern Warfare. Activision stated that the future titles will feel more distinct from the previous one, and with different sub-series and/or new directions, they will stand in for the old every-year release pattern.
(Image credit: Activision)
Why is Activision changing course? If we see the latest 3-4 release pattern of the CoD titles, MWII in 2022, MWIII in 2023, BO6 in 2024, and BO7 in 2025, the pattern ultimately led to the community’s fatigue, and the games felt too similar.
And if we talk about the latest release of Black Ops 7, the reception was poor; the community chose not to enjoy the title very much compared to older titles.
The AI involvement in the game raised the hatred to another level. Players even asked for refunds after experiencing the lower-quality assets (like the calling cards) generated by AI.
In the blog, the team says it will stop back‑to‑back MW/BO releases to make each year feel ‘absolutely unique’ and to focus on changes that are meaningful instead of incremental, with more details promised later.
What actually changes (and what doesn’t)? The first thing you need to know is that Activision isn’t ending the yearly release of the titles but the same series’ back-to-back releases.
So, you should not expect another year like MWII → MWIII or Black Ops 6 → Black Ops 7 back‑to‑back. Activision, on their blog post, hinted at sub-series to be included in the annual release. The naming isn’t done for the 2026 title, but as per Activision, it won’t be another MW or BO entry.
(Image credit: Activision)
Activision’s Plan for Black Ops 7? So now the question arises: what are the future plans for the latest Black Ops 7? If we look at the stats of BO7, it is one of the series’ worst titles yet, with “mostly negative” Steam reviews and a 67 Metascore . Activision needed to think about it.
Instead of abandoning BO7, Activision has thought of the most used strategy to let new players try the game with free trials and then let players judge the game for themselves. The strategy also includes giving the trial users double the XP while playing BO7 Multiplayer and Zombies.
One of the reasons for this free trial is that the frontrunner opponent, i.e., Battlefield 6, is performing great and has occasionally provided new players with free trials .
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