Call of Duty Dev Treyarch Now Focused on 'What Comes Next' After Waving Goodbye to 2 Years of Black Ops

Call of Duty developer Treyarch has said it’s “ready to make something new” as it waves goodbye to two years of Black Ops games.

Treyarch led development on two Black Ops games back-to-back: 2024’s Black Ops 6 and 2025’s Black Ops 7. With Season 6 hitting Black Ops 7 on September 17, the developer has signalled it’s moving on to its next Call of Duty game.

“This is a bittersweet goodbye, but I think over the last two years, we’ve learned a lot,” design director Kevin Drew said in a new dev talk video. “We’ve tried a lot of things in our current era. But we’re ready to make something new and something that nobody’s ever experienced before. In the meantime though, I will see you all playing in Season 6 on September 17th.”

What this means, exactly, is unclear. Could Treyarch be talking about making a new Call of Duty game not in the Black Ops subbrand? Is Treyarch’s next Call of Duty not Black Ops 8? That would be something of a surprise, given Black Ops’ popularity and brand power despite Black Ops 7’s high-profile commercial struggles. Perhaps Treyarch is talking about doing something brand new within the Black Ops universe. My feeling though, is that this is indeed a hint that Black Ops may be given some time to rest, and that Treyarch has something different up its sleeve.

Yale Miller, co-studio head, added: “It’s been amazing to look back at the last couple of years, setting new benchmarks with Black Ops 6, delivering the biggest Black Ops game ever with Black Ops 7, taking huge swings with Omnimovement, Endgame, all kinds of innovation. We are extremely proud and extremely excited for what we were able to deliver.

“So, it’s been amazing to actually also have a dialogue with all of you through regular comms, also through these dev talks, and we’ve been along with you every step of the way while we’re delivering new innovative content. You guys have been grinding out camos, unlocking new things, the progression systems, the feedback. A huge thank you to our partner Raven and all the other studios that helped us here at Treyarch bring all of you all those maps, all that content, all those zombies experiences. It’s been amazing.

“Really excited as well for everything Infinity Ward has been working on. They are clearly setting new bars. There’s so much more of that game for all of you to see. We’ve had the privilege of taking part in a ton of playtests as well. We’ll see you all online in Season 6 and in MW4. Thank you so much. It has been a privilege.”

Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 4 comes out later this year, but Activision has yet to say what will follow. It has an army of studios working on Call of Duty, which may need a shot in the arm from, say, Sledgehammer or Warzone developer Raven in the coming years. The question for parent company Microsoft and new Xbox boss Asha Sharma will be, how does Call of Duty once again hit the heights of yesteryear?