While EA has chosen to omit PS4 and Xbox from the release of Battlefield 6, Activision is taking a different approach by continuing to launch Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on these older consoles. The rationale behind this decision is quite straightforward.
Yale Miller, Treyarch`s senior director of production, told Dexerto that “a surprisingly large number of people” are still actively playing Call of Duty on last-generation systems. He further elaborated that maintaining support for these platforms significantly aids in improving matchmaking efficiency.
“It was a logical and feasible step for us to take,” Miller confirmed.
Miller clarified that while Black Ops 7 will be available on PS4 and Xbox One, players should anticipate that its graphics and overall performance will not match the fidelity seen on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions. He also highlighted the developer`s core philosophy when it comes to feature development: “you should never be thinking about old-gen for the features that you`re designing.” This mindset allows the team to innovate without being constrained by past hardware.
In the same interview, Lawrence Metten, Treyarch`s associate director, shared the team`s enthusiasm for reintroducing the “Theater mode,” a feature enabling players to rewatch their matches. Despite knowing that this mode would not be supported on last-generation consoles, the developers were determined to implement it for current-gen players. “We cannot support it on old-gen. But that shouldn`t be a reason to abandon the feature. We`re going to accept this trade-off and disable it for older platforms,” Metten explained, underscoring their commitment to new features for the latest hardware.
In other news surrounding Black Ops 7, the developers recently disclosed that they rejected a partnership offer with a “major brand” for collaborative in-game skins. This decision was made in response to ongoing criticisms that Call of Duty skins had become excessively whimsical and deviated too far from the game`s core aesthetic.
Upcoming Black Ops 7 Details:
- Launch Date: November 14
- Multiplayer Beta: Playable in October
- Beta Content: Activision has recently confirmed that the multiplayer beta will feature the popular Zombies mode, with many new details about its content already shared.