Out for shark people & co.: No crazy skins in "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7"

Debora Pape

27-8-2025

Translation: machine translated

Octopus heads and cartoon characters are a thing of the past in "Call of Duty: Black Ops". Activision has decided not to transfer these skins to "Black Ops 7".

How much «Fortnite» can a military shooter with roots in historical conflicts be? The «Black Ops 6» community has been increasingly concerned about this in recent months. They have long criticised the publisher Activision for selling ever crazier player and weapon skins. These skins should actually also be usable in the next instalment of the game series. «Black Ops 7» will be released on 14 November. However, following increasing criticism, Activision is now pulling the ripcord. Anyone who has purchased skins for «Black Ops 6» will not be able to use them in «Black Ops 7».

This is why gamers are taking to the barricades

«Call of Duty: Black Ops» is a spin-off game series of the «Call of Duty» series. It has its origins in a realistic World War 2 setting. In «Black Ops», the focus is on secret operations and psychological warfare - initially during the Cold War, then also in future and zombie settings.

Special weapon and player skins have been available in «Black Ops» for more than ten years. In recent years, the skins have become increasingly crazy. For the current title «Black Ops 6» you can buy skins that transform your character - called «Operator» - into a shark-man, a walking geode, the god Zeus or a colourful reptile. There are numerous crossovers with other popular franchises such as «Squid Game» and «Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles». Even cartoon characters from «Beavis and Butthead» are available as operators. You can see all the skins here.

For many players, the game series loses its original serious and realistic feel with such colourful and creative skins and is too reminiscent of fun shooters like «Fortnite». This criticism is something that developer studio Treyarch and publisher Activision have increasingly had to deal with.

At the beginning of the year, Activision defended the crazy skins: fun was more important than strict realism. Accordingly, there were also signs that the skins purchased for «Black Ops 6» will also be usable in the next instalment.

During Gamescom, Miles Leslie from the creative team was asked about the inclusion of skins in «Black Ops 7» and gave an elegant non-answer: The colourful skins are sometimes very popular, but sometimes not. The development team takes the feedback very seriously and advises on what is a good balance.

What is transferable and what is not

Now the die is cast: cosmetic content is not transferable. This includes operators, operator outfits and weapon skins from «Black Ops 6». This should please all fans of realism. Anyone who bought this content on the assumption that they would also be able to use it in the upcoming game is out of luck. However, Activision assures that these skins will remain usable in the battle royale spin-off «Call of Duty: Warzone».

Activision justifies the decision by saying it has listened to the negative feedback. The development team realised that the game series had moved too far away from its immersive and intense gameplay and needed to become more authentic again.

You can also use XP tokens purchased for «Black Ops 6» for faster levelling and GobbleGumms - items that grant unique abilities in Zombie Mode - in «Black Ops 7». Activision confirmed this in its announcement.

Debora Pape

Editor

Debora.Pape@galaxus.de

Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.

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