Treyarch appears ready to leave the Black Ops era behind after two consecutive entries, with the studio promising that its next project will take the long-running shooter series somewhere new.
The end of Treyarch’s Black Ops run
In a developer video published on September 16, Treyarch confirmed that its latest discussion would be the final one focused on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The video primarily covered the multiplayer shooter’s upcoming sixth season, but the closing comments addressed the studio’s next chapter.
Treyarch led development on both 2024’s Black Ops 6 and 2025’s Black Ops 7. Design director Kevin Drew described the farewell as bittersweet, saying the team had learned a great deal and experimented extensively during its two-year run. He also said Treyarch was ready to create “something new” that players had never experienced before.
Drew added that players would see the team in Season 6, which was scheduled to begin on September 17.
A difficult reception for Black Ops 7
The decision to move away from the sub-series follows a challenging response to Black Ops 7. Activision effectively apologised for the game after its reception from critics and players fell well short of expectations.
The futuristic entry combined an unusual open-world campaign with science-fiction missions featuring zombies and giant man-eating plants. Its commercial performance was also weak: BLOPS 7 ended up being the worst-selling CoD since 2008.
Activision confirmed late last year that it would stop releasing Black Ops and Modern Warfare games back-to-back, making a change of direction for Treyarch less surprising.
What comes next for Treyarch?
Treyarch has not revealed the identity or setting of its next Call of Duty project. However, the studio’s comments strongly suggest that its next series entry will not carry the Black Ops name. After two years devoted to that identity, a fresh concept could give the team more room to experiment.
Yale Miller, Treyarch’s co-studio head, said the team was “extremely proud” of its work. He pointed to Black Ops 6 setting new benchmarks before describing Black Ops 7 as the biggest Black Ops game yet.
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Modern Warfare returns next
The next major Call of Duty release is Modern Warfare 4, which is scheduled to launch in October for PlayStation 5, Xbox, Switch 2 and PC.
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