The Call of Duty team just confirmed what players have suspected for years: the long-running yearly release cycle is over. Starting next year, the franchise will end its back-to-back Modern Warfare and Black Ops rotation, which has defined CoD for more than a decade.
How the Mighty Have Fallen
The devs didn’t spell out every reason behind this shift, but let’s be honest—Black Ops 7 played a big part. The multiplayer modes didn’t land, the new features added nothing notable, and the campaign felt like a fever-dream slideshow trying to stitch together a bland, aimless plot. The game kept dragging older characters back using bizarre continuity loopholes, creating more confusion than nostalgia.
Then there’s the AI-generated cosmetics—player cards, banners, and more—something fans called out immediately. It sent a clear message about where time and effort were (not) spent, and a lot of players felt outright betrayed.
New Kids on the Block
Black Ops 7’s failure alone didn’t force this change, though. Battlefield 6 has been outperforming CoD at basically every stage—marketing, beta reception, post-launch support, you name it. Add in the surprise success of Arc Raiders, and suddenly Call of Duty’s dominance doesn’t look quite so guaranteed.
Both games offer stronger alternatives to what CoD delivered this year… unless you’re only here for Zombies. And honestly, with how quickly the industry adapts, it wouldn’t be surprising if another studio drops a “Zombies-like” mode sooner rather than later.
The competition isn’t creeping in—it’s kicking the door down. And paired with rushed development, the cracks in Call of Duty’s armor aren’t cracks anymore; they’re wide-open gaps.
The Future of Call of Duty
All that said, this doesn’t mean Call of Duty is giving up. Fans have been asking for a break in the yearly cycle for years, pointing out how each entry feels more like a content patch than a full game. Slowing down could finally give the series room to breathe—more development time, fewer crunch-heavy deadlines, and the chance for bigger, more meaningful ideas to actually flourish.
The franchise needed a reset. And honestly? This might be the best decision they’ve made in a long time.
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