Microsoft announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at its Xbox Games Showcase June 2025, a reveal that came later in the year than is usual for the series. And the debut trailer, below, gave fans little to go on beyond a story tease and confirmation of the year in which the game is set (2035) and its protagonist: David Mason.
It turns out, this is all part of Activision’s marketing strategy for Black Ops 7, which is all about not revealing much at all before the game comes out later in 2025. To what end? Activision wants Black Ops 7’s launch to feel like a surprise Beyonce album drop.
Speaking to Variety, Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl explained what the company is trying to achieve with Black Ops 7:
“Usually at this point in time, we would have teased everything that’s coming out. And I think in a lot of ways we’re setting this up more like a Beyonce album dropping; nobody’s going to know about it, or nobody’s going to see it coming.
“The whole goal was to really do something different, and for us to zag and show up in a unique way. And one way of doing that is almost not doing any pre-promotion and giving it to players in a really unexpected way.”
While Activision promised a bigger reveal for some point in the summer, perhaps it won’t reveal much at all, and fans will have to wait until the release date to get a real sense of what Black Ops 7 is all about.
So, what do we know? Black Ops 7 is set in 2035, more than 40 years after the events of Black Ops 6, at a time when the world is on the brink of chaos following the events of Black Ops 2 and last year’s Black Ops 6. Co-op campaign returns for Black Ops 7 after 6 skipped it (you can still play the campaign solo). Expect to use near-future weaponry in Multiplayer, with brand-new maps. Meanwhile, there’s the next chapter of Round-Based Zombies in the heart of the Dark Aether.
Here’s the official blurb:
Wielding cutting-edge technology, David Mason and his team must fight back against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.
According to Variety, Black Ops 7 sees This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia play David Mason (the character is recast with a new face), Kiernan Shipka as a new character called Emma Kagen (CEO of The Guild), and Michael Rooker, who reprises his role as Mike Harper from Black Ops 2.
Also confirmed is that Activision is sticking with last-gen consoles for Black Ops 7, which is due out across Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via “Xbox PC,” Battle.net, and Steam. As you’d expect, you can play day-one on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass. There was no mention of Nintendo Switch 2 in the announcement. It’s a co-development between Treyarch and Raven Software.
Black Ops 7 marks the first time the Black Ops sub-series has seen back-to-back releases, and comes just a year after Black Ops 6’s launch. Some fans are already saying this makes Black Ops 7 feel like a stop-gap, as 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 was considered by some within the community given it followed 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 just a year later. Activision, however, has insisted Black Ops 7 “delivers the full Call of Duty package for our players.”
The expectation is Infinity Ward will return with a new Modern Warfare game in 2026, resetting the Call of Duty cycle once again.
For more, check out everything announced at Xbox Games Showcase June 2025.
Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
