Call of Duty Will Course Correct on Stupidity in Black Ops 6

While Call of Duty remains a global phenomenon, some of its most dedicated gamers are tired of all the nonsense that Activision has added to the latest title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Activision says that it’s heard the feedback and, more importantly, that it will change its ways.

“There’s been a lot of conversation recently about the identity of Call of Duty,” the Call of Duty team writes in its latest community update post. “Some of you have said we’ve drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place: immersive, intense, visceral, and in many ways grounded. That feedback hits home, and we take it seriously. We hear you.”

The conversation they’re referring to is about the weird series of playable character skins that have polluted the game’s multiplayer matches all year. It started badly enough with a Squid Game tie-in but has since escalated with skins based on characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, American Dad, Seth Rogan (of all people), and now Beavis and Butthead. These silly characters have ruined this experience for many, especially those drawn to the games for their gritty realism.

Not helping matters, EA recently showed off Battlefield 6, a game that will never rival Call of Duty in sales or engagement but nonetheless appears to deliver the game experiences that COD players expect.

And so Activision, finally, is acting. When it announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 last week, Activision said that it would carry forward all operators, player skins, and weapons from the current game, Black Ops 6. But now it says it will no longer do so.

“Black Ops 7 needs to feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting,” the team writes. “That is why Black Ops 6 Operator and Weapon content will not carry forward to Black Ops 7. Double XP tokens and GobbleGums will still carry forward, because we recognize your time and progression are important.”

GobbleGums. Whatever.