The latest era in the seemingly endless competition between Battlefield and Call of Duty is about to begin, as Battlefield 6 is about to release while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will drop in November. Thus far, public opinion has been firmly in the side of EA’s flagship FPS, as Black Ops 7 critics have cited issues like unrealistic cosmetics and matchmaking as concerns for the upcoming release. To Treyarch’s credit, it has made the bold decision to remove carry forward from BO7 to increase immersion, and rather shockingly, announced that it’s doing away with SBMM and bringing back persistent lobbies.
Considering how heavily demanded those final two changes are, Black Ops 7 has suddenly gained some positive buzz, though it will be interesting to see if it’s enough to win back those who have chosen Battlefield 6 as there 2025 military shooter of choice. Battlefield 6’s strong reviews match the largely positive response to its beta, setting a high bar for Black Ops 7 to get over. Climbing that mountain will be even harder due to the decision to release a version of the game on last-gen consoles, though this will undoubtedly give BO7 an edge in another important department: sales.
Black Ops 7’s Last-Gen Release Means Battlefield 6 Will Be More Cutting Edge
In the lead-up to Battlefield 6’s launch, Battlefield Studios developer Christian Buhl shared in an interview with PCgamer that the reason for BF6’s impressive destruction and stunning graphics is rather simple: the developers are not being held back by a last-gen release. This has given them more memory and CPU power to play around with, and has allowed for improved performance alongside the impressive textures and physics — explaining BF6’s 120 FPS performance mode. Unfortunately for Call of Duty, pushing the IW engine to its limits is impossible until PS4 and Xbox One are abandoned, and that won’t be happening with Black Ops 7.
While rumors have suggested that Call of Duty 2026 could finally be ditching last-gen consoles, it remains to be seen if these reports will prove true. In the meantime, players will be experiencing Black Ops 7, a game that — as indicated by the BO7 beta — certainly isn’t leaving players wowed from a visual standpoint. The visuals are serviceable, even if the characters and map architecture regularly look plastic-like, yet they don’t quite match the stellar gunplay that is the series’ bread and butter. Even weaponry feels a bit bland and lifeless, and while part of this will come down to similar-looking guns and a muted color palette, a lack of graphical power certainly will play a part in the gun textures looking less intricate than they could.
All of these issues will be even clearer on the last-gen version of BO7, as it will probably be quite rough from a graphics perspective. Marvel Rivals’ PS4 port showed how much of a hit intense games can take when being ported to outdated hardware, while Call of Duty itself has put out some rough ports in the past. Black Ops 3 immediately comes to mind, as the PS3 and Xbox 360 version was so ugly that it sparked memes such as Last Gen Richtofen. With BO7 releasing so long after the PS4 and Xbox One were “replaced,” a similarly ugly last-gen game could be imminent, though this is purely speculation. Regardless, Battlefield 6 is going to be the obvious winner for graphic snobs, as it’s a proper current-gen FPS — something that CoD fans on Xbox Series X and PS5 have yet to experience.
Black Ops 7’s Zombies mode is the exception to the game’s bland visuals, as through some top-notch art design, the Farm survival map featured in the beta looks significantly better than what was seen in multiplayer.
Black Ops 7’s Last-Gen Release Opens Up a Larger Audience of Potential Buyers
However, on the other side of the spectrum is the sheer fact that games being released on last-gen consoles in 2025 remains highly profitable. Per VGC, PlayStation 5 didn’t have more monthly users than the PlayStation 4 until May 2025, with a staggering number of gamers still not moving on to the latest Sony console even after having five years to do so. There are likely a number of factors for this, such as the general cost of living, but one of the biggest is that a majority of major games — such as Black Ops 7 — continue to release on PS4 and Xbox One. With only a handful of true PS5 exclusives thus far, it makes sense that many players are sticking with their older consoles until they absolutely have to make the jump. Call of Duty is capitalizing on this sizeable audience, whereas Battlefield is openly leaving them behind in favor of being the most impressive game it can be.
Since Call of Duty being on Game Pass has lost Microsoft plenty of money, the last-gen releases may be seen as a necessity behind the scenes to maximize the sales potential of each new CoD game.
Considering EA’s lofty expectations for Battlefield, a last-gen release may have looked like an attractive route to take, as it would have gotten the series a fair bit closer to reaching that 100 million player goal. However, Battlefield fans on PC and current-gen consoles will undoubtedly be happy that BF6 is leaning into the power modern technology provides. While CoD’s multiplatform approach will satisfy shareholders and benefit casual gamers, Battlefield’s strategy makes it a more appealing product for those looking to be consistently wowed by the games they play. Both titles will be able to “win” in their own ways, though it’s Battlefield’s approach that will likely earn it the most brownie points in the realm of public opinion, as many are tired of their modern consoles not being used to their fullest.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 66 /100 Critics Rec: 34%
- Released
- November 14, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
WHERE TO PLAY
Source: VGC