Best lessons that Modern Warfare 4 can take from Black Ops 7

We've reached the point in the annual Call of Duty cycle where it's officially 'out with the old and in with the new' season.

A double-header of Treyarch's Black Ops sub-series has come and gone, and with it, the Call of Duty franchise has suffered.

The latter of the two back-to-back games launched without much hype, being extremely similar to its predecessor, without much USP, and gatekept on Game Pass.

But Modern Warfare 4 is switching things up again, and the early playing stats on the Beta indicate a 50 percent player increase already.

But before we claim that 'Call of Duty is back', there are still some lessons that Modern Warfare 4 needs to heed from Black Ops 7, both positive and negative.

The positives:

Keeping the post-launch output

While Black Ops 7 might be one of the lesser-played Call of Duty games in modern memory, its post-launch live-service support was by far the best we've ever had.

With seasons full of massive content drops, including maps, weapons, operators, game modes, and so much more (and not just building on a semi-finished title, but complementing a full base game), there was a constant feeling that loyal players were being well-rewarded.

Modern Warfare 4 has had years in development; if it hasn't mapped out a full support package, players will fall off quickly.

The negatives:

Integrating Warzone better than Bo7

Inherently, Warzone goes hand in hand with Infinity Ward games, having been born on the Modern Warfare 2019 engine during the series reboot.

Treyarch has always cared little about it. Maybe it was in haste to knock Blackout off the charts, or maybe it was just to focus on the core game, but Warzone has been left out on a limb for a long time.

Bringing both branches of Call of Duty together would be a recipe for success for Infinity Ward, connecting the community, making both thrive, and offering cross-pollinating rewards.

One can live without the other, sure, but both succeeding well will have huge positive ramifications for the future of the series.

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Refreshing the meta

Call of Duty finds itself in a weird spot, desperately trying to stay fresh while trying not to be more of the same. The most impacted feature here is the guns, yet Black Ops 7 did nothing to help itself stand out from the crowd.

While the gunplay was fun, the Black Ops 7 meta was the same all year round, aside from the overpowered attachments that found their way into public matches. The same-y vibe was felt the most in Ranked play, with three guns being used from the first season to now.

Modern Warfare 4 needs to change this.

Already, the MW4 beta has shown that casual playlists will have frequent meta changes through Apex attachments (similar to Modern Warfare 2 and 3), but the base guns also need to get heavy nerfs and buffs.

Changing the meta doesn't just make the game different every month or so, but it keeps players engaged, searching for the best weapons, and retention levels would peak.

Forget Game Pass, but not entirely

The biggest flaw of Black Ops 7 was being on Game Pass. It crippled the Call of Duty franchise, and even the entirety of Xbox, which was hoping to subsidise smaller studios, resulting in mass layoffs - it wasn't all Call of Duty's fault, but the saving-grace cash flow was nowhere to be seen.

Thankfully, Xbox has already confirmed that Modern Warfare 4 will not be launching on Game Pass as of day one.

But to get the best out of MW4, it should offer players early free weekends through the Xbox Game Pass, giving those who have been sceptical about the title a chance to get on the hype train early.

Call of Duty is Xbox's biggest asset alongside The Elder Scrolls, and in a year where funky collabs are to be minimal (potentially limiting microtransaction income in favour of realistic mil-sim gameplay), sales are paramount, and we'll only reap the rewards if the 2026 instalment performs well.

Ultimately, Modern Warfare 4 has a good blueprint to work from this year, not only on how to be a good game, but also how not to flop.