Call of Duty Ditches Silly Skins in Black Ops 7 Leading to a Fresh Start

The Call of Duty franchise has been on a bit of a downward turn for quite a while, with both fans and those who abandoned it long ago calling it out for its numerous mistakes, inherent flaws, and failed attempts at improving. That’s not to say that COD is truly awful, but rather its lapse in quality, especially in its most recent entries – Modern Warfare 3 still has a Mostly Negative rating on Steam – has allowed its competition to surpass it, leaving it well and truly in the dust.

Of course, Activision wants to reclaim Call of Duty’s former glory, especially now that Battlefield 6 is beating COD before it is even out. Of course, in order to do that, Activision needs to abandon a lot of the baggage that has been weighing down the franchise for a considerable number of years. Fortunately, it seems ready to end Call of Duty’s worst era and usher in the start of something potentially amazing, so long as it is still capable of pulling off a miracle.

Call Of Duty Is Ditching The Silly Skins

They Won’t Be Featured In Black Ops 7

COD’s most frustrating aspect, at least over the past few years, has been its utterly inconsistent skins. These range from baffling celebrity choices to animated characters, neither of which fit within the gritty, grounded, and realistic framework that the series has operated within for so long. Whenever one sees any of these out-of-place skins pop up in a match, it feels hard to believe that the series was once focused on the brutality of war, the devastation that comes with it, and the consequences of our actions.

When Battlefield 6 came along and promised a more immersive and grounded experience with no silly Fortnite-esque skins, everyone was elated. Evidently, Activision saw that, as it has dramatically pivoted its strategy away from the aforementioned comical skins. In a blog post, Activision laid out the crucial changes coming to COD, including the removal of all prior skins to ensure that Black Ops 7 remains a purely immersive experience from start to finish. It stated that “in Black Ops 7, bundles and items will be crafted to fit the Black Ops identity.“

This was because it found that its community had “drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place” and that it hears the negative reception to the lack of immersion in the more modern COD titles. As a result, “Black Ops 6 Operator and Weapon content will not carry forward to Black Ops 7.” Ostensibly, this means we’re all going to lose our current skins that many have invested a significant sum of money in.

You’re Going To Lose All Of Your Skins In Black Ops 7

It Won’t Include The Carry Forward Feature

Black Ops 7 character holding a pistol upright.

It is a shame that Black Ops 7’s new vision has come at such an extreme cost, but it is a decision that ultimately makes sense. Activision wants to save Call of Duty from potentially heading down a path it cannot recover from, and to do that, it has to do a soft reboot. The series has already seen a greater focus on stronger narratives after it ditched them completely with Black Ops 4 and then botched it again with both Modern Warfare 2 and 3. The removal of silly skins feels like an extension of that growth.

Of course, removing the Carry Forward feature is a shame, as it was one of the more consumer-friendly concessions Activision made to justify its increasingly expensive skins. However, were everyone to bring over their skins from Black Ops 6 to 7, we’d once again be faced with the exact same issues. This was an important step for Call of Duty to end its current era of wacky skins and its identity crisis. Now, in theory at least, it can move on and provide a more coherent experience for all.

That being said, it does still feel like we could, at any point, veer back towards those same skins. Black Ops 7 already has robot Operator skins available in its pre-order, and the lucrative deals it will have made with other popular IPs to get characters like Homelander into the game will always be tempting. There’s no reason to assume that eventually these skins will make a return. If that does end up happening, then Activision needs to ensure that they are separated into their own unique experience to maintain a clear identity.

COD Needs A More Clear Identity

It Needs To Separate The Weird From The Immersive

A group of soldiers from Call of Duty zombies standing in a row.

It is important for Call of Duty to create a clearer and concise identity for itself going forward, especially considering how popular its competition is getting. It is admirable that Activision wants to return to the more grounded aesthetic of the original Call of Duty games, but that’s hard to maintain when it frequently veers into sci-fi settings and continues to include a Zombies mode. What is perhaps more realistic is for Activision to separate each aspect of its core experience to ensure everyone is catered to.

Those who want to play with and against silly skins could have their own dedicated mode, much like how Zombies feels like a unique and separate component. Of course, one could argue that this would divide the community and potentially lead to fewer players in already under-performing game modes. However, it feels like the most logical solution should Activision ever feel like returning to its old ways. At the very least, silly skins could be added as limited-time experiences and introduced at a significantly slower pace to avoid overwhelming players.

Ultimately, a complete division between Call of Duty’s numerous types of experiences is necessary if Activision wants to maintain some semblance of realism, even within its more fantastical settings. I’m glad that this era of COD is coming to an end, especially as I very quickly grew tired of these silly skins long before it became popular to dislike them. However, I just hope that this is something Activision can uphold, as frankly, it feels like Call of Duty could be on its last legs.