Xbox Games Showcase 2025 was an exciting one for all of us, as it had something for everybody. Call of Duty fans have got a sneak peek of Black Ops 7, which comes out later in 2025. However, instead of giving a thorough breakdown, Activision took a more secretive approach this time around.
The secrecy could mean two things – it either sucks or it’s going to be the greatest thing ever. Judging from BO6‘s success, it probably is safer to bet on the latter. Furthermore, Activision wants fans to be surprised by the upcoming game, as it brings back some iconic characters.
Activision wants the Black Ops 7 release to be as surprising as the drop of Beyoncé
Call of Duty probably has one of the biggest fan bases, so expectations are always higher than before. Despite being famous, we’ve always seen pre-release promotions from Activision to showcase what’s coming next. However, that pattern is being broken this year with the release of Black Ops 7 later in 2025.
The reason behind it is simple: Activision wants to skip all the teasers and trailers to drop a “surprise.” Tyler Bahl, the market chief of Activision, even compared the situation to Beyoncé’s Lemonade album, which came out of nowhere. While speaking to Variety, this is what Tyler Bahl revealed:
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.
We all pretty much know how game releases work. It starts with an announcement, followed by trailers, and is finally released with another trailer. By the time a game releases, it has a risk of being redundant, which Activision wants to avoid with Black Ops 7.
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.
Whatever Bahl said, does makes a lot of sense. If you take a glance at recent releases, shadow-dropped games have performed much better. For instance, The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered did phenomenal even without pre-release promotions. So maybe, Activision’s plan with BO7 might just work.
Why are hopes high with Black Ops 7?
Black Ops 6 was a hit for Activision, as it made tonnes of changes and introduced the revolutionary omnidirectional movement. But we aren’t here to discuss the past, as the future seems way more exciting. David Mason is making a return to clean up the mess of Raul Menendez.
But we all know, Menendez’s death is canonically true, so why is he shown in the Black Ops 7 trailer? It is confirmed that the next title will be set in 2035, which is right between the events of BO2 and BO4. And from the looks of the trailer, we might be going back to the semi-futuristic era of Call of Duty.
The enemy faction this time around is again The Guild, which has been featured in Black Ops 6 as well. It can be assumed that the story will be trippy and confusing, as it will try to tie up a lot of loose ends. Well, that has always been the point of Black Ops series games, right?
In terms of gameplay, we might see the return of Black Ops 4‘s futuristic gadgets, paired with the omnidirectional movement. But, since Activision is trying to keep Black Ops 7 a secret, there have to be more than a few feature upgrades. But to learn that, we have to be patient till the end of 2025.
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