Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 – the development team on big ambitions and hallucinations

Domagoj Belancic

7.11.2025

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

I had the opportunity to talk to members of the development team behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at a preview event in London. They’re pretty ambitious – this latest instalment is set to be the biggest, craziest and most wide-ranging yet. But will this pay off?

Another year, another Call of Duty. After last year’s excellent Black Ops 6, Activision is following up this year with Black Ops 7. Instead of nineties espionage action, there’s a futuristic war scenario in which the boundaries between reality and madness become blurred.

Activision provided insight into the development of the blockbuster at a preview event in London. I spoke to two members of the Call of Duty development team about their ambitions, the immense scope of the game and the central theme of the story: fear and the dark abyss in our minds.

Natalie Pohorski is Lead Producer at Raven Software, the studio in charge of the campaign. Stephanie Snowden is Director of Communications for all studios working on the Call of Duty franchise. In addition to Raven Software, these are Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games.

Your new game has a 7 in the title. A number that big could act as a deterrent to newcomers. What would you tell people afraid to dive into the seventh part of an ongoing series?

Natalie: I maintain that Black Ops 7 is the perfect game for newcomers. We’ve paid great attention to establishing the four playable characters in the campaign as real, believable people. You should be able to follow the story, even if you’re completely new to the Black Ops universe. But old fans will be rewarded just as well. They’ll discover numerous characters and references to past games.

What is Black Ops 7 about?

Black Ops 7 is a direct sequel to Black Ops 2 (2012). The action is set in the year 2035 – ten years after the events of its predecessor. Nicaraguan terrorist Raul Menendez has taken inspiration from Emperor Palpatine and mysteriously risen from the dead. He threatens to end the world within three days. David Mason (played by Milo Ventimiglia) and his JSOC team have to investigate the threat. They include Mike Harper (Michael Rooker) and Eric Samuels (John Eric Bentley), both from Black Ops 2, as well as newcomer Leilani Tupuola (Frankie Adams). During the course of the game, tech company The Guild also gets involved in the investigation. They developed a weapon that drives its victims mad with hallucinations.

Stephanie: There’s another benefit for newcomers: Black Ops 7 is the biggest Black Ops of all time. Even apart from the campaign, there are so many game modes for you to let off steam, regardless of whether you know Call of Duty well or not. These include things that many wouldn’t associate with a game series like Call of Duty.

«The greatest Black Ops game of all time?» That’s quite the statement. So what can I expect in addition to the campaign in this monster package?

Stephanie: Zombies mode this year is massive, with new gameplay options, a new story and the biggest map we’ve ever had. But there are also smaller game modes to discover, such as Dead Ops Arcade mode. It’s a twin-stick top-down shooter – a game within a game, so to speak. You can spend dozens of hours in this smaller mode alone.

You’ll also find PvE endgame mode attached to the campaign. In it, you can explore a huge map with a total of 28 players. For the multiplayer, we added more maps than ever before at launch, including new modes such as Overload and the larger 20v20 mode Skirmish. And after launch, season one will soon start with new content.

In short, no matter what you prefer, we’ve made sure there’s something for everyone in Black Ops 7.

Black Ops 7 features a global progression system for the first time – is this innovation linked to the wealth of added content and game modes?

Stephanie: Yes, we put together a big package and wanted to make sure that you were rewarded for everything. Whether you’re following the story, killing zombies or competing against other players in multiplayer – you’re always collecting experience points, levelling up your weapons and unlocking new content. The time you invest in Black Ops 7 should be worth it, no matter your preferences.

Speaking of the multiplayer, let’s talk about matchmaking. Permanent lobbies were introduced in the open beta, a feature that was received positively by many fans. Will this be a permanent feature in the game?

Stephanie: Feedback from the beta has shown us that we should continue to offer fans the option to play in the same team constellation after a match if they wish. So there’ll also be permanent lobbies on full release.

Another hot topic of discussion in the Call of Duty community is Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM for short). A big change in the open beta is the option for open matchmaking as an alternative to SBMM. What’s your current stance on SBMM?

Stephanie: I wouldn’t say we have a «current stance» as such with regard to SBMM. But the feedback we received on the open matchmaking option during the beta was positive. At launch, there’ll certainly be playlists in which your skill will only have minimal influence on who you compete against in a match.

Back to the campaign. A central theme of the story is fear and how it’s literally used as a weapon in a futuristic war. Where does the inspiration for this approach come from and what influence does it have on the story?

Natalie: Fear and paranoia have always been a part of Black Ops stories. Who can you trust? Is what you’re experiencing even real? For Black Ops 7, we transported this basic narrative framework to the year 2035.

Our characters have exciting, dark backstories. They carry plenty of fear around with them too. In the course of the story, they’re confronted with a weapon that can bring these fears to life through hallucinations. This allows us to have missions in the campaign that portray their psyche in a really wacky way.

Can I assume that these crazy gameplay sequences will feel similar to the zombie and dream sequences from Black Ops 6?

Natalie: Absolutely, we’re building on these experiences. At Raven Software, we had a lot of fun developing those crazy levels in Black Ops 6. But we also don’t want to go too crazy in Black Ops 7. Despite the madness, all levels should feel grounded and comprehensible.

The clips you’ve shown so far look pretty damn crazy. To what extent are these grounded?

Natalie: A central aspect of the Black Ops DNA, which we’re trying to emphasise more strongly this time, is personal change – even becoming a monster. When we delve into these moral grey areas and illuminate the fears our characters have, one question often pops up: what do traumatic experiences do to us? How far are we prepared to go for the mission?

Ergo, hallucinations aren’t simply there to show off. They’re based on our characters’ psyche and memories. Events from the past that burden them. We hope we successfully brought all these elements together into a coherent overall package.

For many fans, Call of Duty is still essentially a realistic military shooter. How difficult is it to combine the crazy ideas in your campaign with grounded elements?

Stephanie: First of all, it’s important to note that Call of Duty has several sub-franchises. The Black Ops series has always been famous for its confusing and complex stories that’ll make your head spin. In terms of gameplay, however, we always stick to the down-to-earth approach that runs through all Call of Duty games. Black Ops 7 continues to offer the classic, gripping Call of Duty battles you know and love – fluid, intense and with a satisfying gameplay experience. We can’t wait to get feedback from our community about this.

A big selling point of the campaign is co-op mode for up to four players. I’m always sceptical about that. Often, either the solo or co-op experience suffers. How do you avoid this happening in Black Ops 7?

Stephanie: We knew that if we made a co-op campaign, it had to support up to four players, not just two or three. This decision was clear from the outset, and we started developing the campaign with this clear goal in mind.

Natalie: Our advantage is that we have a very character-driven story. The characters aren’t just empty shells, but real people that players can truly embody, no matter who they’re playing or how many friends they’re playing with.

We also made a very linear campaign, with a lot of pace and variety. This classic, carefully orchestrated Black Ops campaign feeling remains the same, regardless of whether you play alone or in a team. We spent a lot of time testing to thoroughly optimise all in-game situations and to ensure that the difficulty scales sensibly depending on the number of players.

At the preview event, I also had the opportunity to talk to Hollywood star Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead), who plays Mike Harper in Black Ops 7. Click on Follow author below to be notified as soon as the interview is published.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be released on 14 November for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Activision invited me to the preview event in London and covered my travel expenses.

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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