Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 associate creative director Miles Leslie has commented on the fact that 2025 marks the first time since 2021 that there will be new Call of Duty and Battlefield games released in the same year. How does Leslie feel about the competition? He told IGN that he recently played the Battlefield 6 open beta and concluded that “it’s a fun game,” but Activision is staying focused on its own product.
“We’re fans of all games and I think we look for inspiration anywhere. But we’re focused on our own craft. They’re doing their thing,” he said. “We know if we can hit our goals, we’re going to deliver what the fans want and that’s the key, because if we’re happy when we’re play testing, then we know fans are going to be happy play testing.”
Leslie added: “We’re fans of the FPS genre. We’re fans of lots of games. Let’s all have fun.”
The developer was also asked to respond to the claims from some in the FPS community that Call of Duty doesn’t do enough to innovate with its annual releases. Leslie said, “You just don’t worry about it.” He said the developers instead aim to stick to their vision and make something fun for people to enjoy.
“There’s always going to be people that are going to try to knock you down and not have positive criticism, which we do look for. So, it’s like noise. You try to cut through that and stick to your vision and plan,” he said.
Former Xbox executive Mike Ybarra recently said that Battlefield 6 will “boot stomp” Black Ops 7. “The real win here is CoD won’t be lazy anymore, and we’ll all get better FPS games for it,” he said.
For what it’s worth, experts do not expect Battlefield 6 to outsell Black Ops 7, in part because the masses of casual players who play Call of Duty will buy the newest game every year even if they complain about a lack of major changes or innovation. As for Ybarra’s comments specifically, one research firm said he needs to “chill out” and think more critically.
Black Ops 7 launches on November 14, which is about a month after Battlefield 6 arrives on October 10.
