Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is expected to make its appearance on August 19, during the Gamescom Opening Night Live show hosted by Geoff Keighley. It will be the worldwide reveal, live streamed, and shall be the next big step in making this military shooter franchise even more loved amongst the masses. But is the not-so-effective hype on Twitter dying out midway 2021?
Keighley’s announcement tweet was, in some circles, met with an almost “lukewarm” enthusiasm. While a handful of gamers have shown some sort of mild interest (“She looks cool,” said Dueña de Laz Almas) most of the reactions to the tweet were sarcastic or downright anti the franchise.
Constant comparisons with Battlefield 6 became a matter of course. Several stood out calling it like NEON: “CoD got no shit on BF6 lmao,” whereas AshPelt proclaimed, “We will be playing Battlefield 6 instead.” This has surely become a meme: Kowboy only added to it by spelling out “B A T T L E F I E L D” in all caps.
Criticism arose in some, from the competitive side, with most noting the perceived franchise stagnation. ZigoSid put an end to the issue with a snappy comment: “Reveal what? That’s the same shit every year.” TurokGL had more to say about it: “I can’t understand how people can be excited for a reveal of a cod game nowadays, I mean you know how the game will be, it’s the same shit just different presentation.”
Even the timing was attacked. Toallín asked sardonicly, “Didn’t the previous one barely just come out? lmao” – a shot against the once-a-year release schedule many believe has fuelled franchise fatigue. Another target for derision was the cross-gen style of recent CoD titles, with Your friendly PS Guy straightforwardly saying it is “embarrassing tbh.”
Creative directions also did not stand a chance: Jazz: “Who is the protagonist now? Barney? Archie? Beavis and Butthead? 🤡” Mostly Sober Jedi kept things interesting with wild imagined skins: “Can’t wait to see a fat Elon Musk skin vs the Virgin Mary skin. This game fucking sucks out the gate.”
A couple were just pure comedy gold. Dameon Edwards posted a gif of somebody falling asleep along with the caption “I… am… hyped… so… excited… 😒😒” while BlindArchangel went for the classics: “😴😴😴… Huh?! Oh… 😴😴😴”
Not everyone went negative. The one exception amid the BF6 v CoD comments is AviJEY who soberly asks, “Can I genuinely ask why BF6 fans need to comment on every single fucking post about cod?” ZograTTV, however, provides a more mixed viewpoint: “Bf is the competitor of cod only in the head of retarded fan of the two games… When COD is more arcade 6v6 BF is arcade but on larger scale and with fun of destruction.”
The reveal comes at an interesting time for the franchise. Call of Duty is still one of the most commercialized names in gaming, and yet, these reactions make it seem like maybe Activision will indeed have to conjure something truly groundbreaking just to win-back the doubtful players. Black ops 7 is going to have to prove itself worthy of more than just an annual installment with battlefield-6 standing as a really huge competition and franchise-fatigue setting in.
If that is to be done through the Gamescom reveal, well, only time will tell. For now, judging by the amount of reaction on Twitter, Activision is definitely going to have to do quite a lot in convincing gamers to be excited about Black Ops 7. The stream goes live on August 19; let’s see if the actual reveal can stir more excitement than the announcement did.
