[IGN] Activision Says It's Doing Almost No Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Pre-Promotion

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Astray

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Activision Says It's Doing Almost No Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Pre-Promotion: 'We're Setting This Up More Like a Beyonce Album Dropping'


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Activision Says It's Doing Almost No Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Pre-Promotion: 'We're Setting This Up More Like a Beyonce Album Dropping' - IGN

Microsoft announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at its Xbox Games Showcase June 2025, a reveal that came later in the year than is usual for the series. And the debut trailer, below, gave fans little to go on beyond a story tease and confirmation of the year in which the game is set (2035) and its...
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Not sure what they're thinking with this strategy, feels like a cost cutting measure now that COD doesn't have Sony's marketing funds and worldwide reach.
 
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clarky said:
But they just closed the showcase with it?
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My god that closure was so awful.

This piece has some Activision people quoted directly on it.

I think they're referring to the COD marketing we get every year, pre-promotion probably means pre-release marketing here (as opposed to post-release where it's more focused on skins collabs etc).
 
They have a search engine, AI, and Windows telemetry data so I suspect they have some idea what works and what people look at. My working theory was that shadow dropping makes sense for niche or hardcore content, but marketing is useful for more mainstream stuff. Then they shadow dropped Oblivion. Seems to be something they think works for them.

I can't imagine paying for TV commercials actually does anything now. Mostly people over 60 watching it, literally. Maybe we'll see some bigger ads closer to release on streaming services, billboards, etc. They wouldn't change it with Call of Duty if it wasn't based on something.
 
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It's because they have almost nothing worth showing.

This is MWIII 2.0. A rushed expansion pack turned into a full game with rehashed maps from a far better game over a decade ago.
 
Punished Miku said:
They have a search engine, AI, and Windows telemetry data so I suspect they have some idea what works and what people look at. My working theory was that shadow dropping makes sense for niche or hardcore content, but marketing is useful for more mainstream stuff. Then they shadow dropped Oblivion. Seems to be something they think works for them.

I can't imagine paying for TV commercials actually does anything now. Mostly people over 60 watching it, literally. Maybe we'll see some bigger ads closer to release on streaming services, billboards, etc. They wouldn't change it with Call of Duty if it wasn't based on something.
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BO6 had probably the least promotion ever in my area. Very little billboard or in-store execution.

Coming out and calling out marketing contracts and exclusive DLC was a great mistake on Spencer's part because that part brings in $$$ that Activision can use. He should be playing Nintendo and Sony against each other, not trying to be the clean guy (which he absolutely isn't).
 
I guess they are confident in the COD fanbase buying any shit they put out to try something risky and different.
 
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Astray said:
BO6 had probably the least promotion ever in my area. Very little billboard or in-store execution.

Coming out and calling out marketing contracts and exclusive DLC was a great mistake on Spencer's part because that part brings in $$$ that Activision can use. He should be playing Nintendo and Sony against each other, not trying to be the clean guy (which he absolutely isn't).
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Yeah, maybe. I think he's not interested in showing it as a Sony promotion. He's interested in trying to grow it and get new people to play it. He's betting on more long term trends and not short term payoff.
 
Punished Miku said:
Yeah, maybe. I think he's not interested in showing it as a Sony promotion. He's interested in trying to grow it and get new people to play it. He's betting on more long term trends and not short term payoff.
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It's not going to grow unless you put marketing into it lol.

If EA doesn't make a proper COD competitor out of Battlefield this go-round then they never will imo. It's almost like they're being invited to by MS/ABK.
 
Astray said:
It's not going to grow unless you put marketing into it lol.

If EA doesn't make a proper COD competitor out of Battlefield this go-round then they never will imo. It's almost like they're being invited to by MS/ABK.
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You're not presenting some new idea that's never been heard before. If they are changing it, they have a reason. I'm just curious what it is.
 
Besides GTA- this is a series that probably doesnt need much marketing.
Its dumb though in my opinion. Its not GTA and you need to make people aware its coming- especially people that dont keep up with this sort of thing. Who knows- interesting stuff.

I will be skipping this year again. Black Ops line doesnt ever excite me
 
Wouldn't that poor little company Microsoft pay for marketing? Especially when it comes to GamePass.

I genuinely forgot I bought the last CoD (Black Ops 6?) to play the campaign and zombies. I think I've played 1 of the 2 zombie maps it came with at the time. Whoops.
 
hemo memo said:
It comes every year. Everyone knows that. It's like a new FIFA game.
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Indeed.
They'll probably save a tremendous amount of money by skipping the large marketing campaign and see a tiny but measurable sales drop.
They'll be fine.
 
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Im not sure what they mean by pre-promotion? If they mean releasing tons of info basically outlining everything in the game then I dont see that as necessarily a bad thing. If they are talking about reducing marketing, which is a hallmark of MS, then I think they may be in for a rude awakening. True everyone knows that its the yearly CoD, but CoD kinda exists as the behomoth it is because of the constant hype cycles.
 
They are making significantly less money by switching to a rental services. Changes and cutbacks were bound to happen.

Just pray it doesn't eventually become a "Gamepass GameTM"
 
It'll sell itself well enough and probably isn't worth the extra cost of marketing, they'll likely be going all out for the rumoured current-gen only MW4 next year as they'll need to encourage as many people as possible to come over to this gen to play it. No doubt MW4 will be bundled everywhere.
 
The best thing about this is that the same studio effectively gets two years worth of development for their version of the game instead of one, which should mean that they can optimize everything even further than the launch title… in other words BO7 is just a further refined BO6 instead of a brand new game with new bugs and problems..

In theory of course
 
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Astray said:

Activision Says It's Doing Almost No Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Pre-Promotion: 'We're Setting This Up More Like a Beyonce Album Dropping'



Not sure what they're thinking with this strategy, feels like a cost cutting measure now that COD doesn't have Sony's marketing funds and worldwide reach.
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It's definitely about cutting costs... I believe ABK was making 80% on PSN sales rather than 70%. You lose that revenue AND the marketing deal with Sony? And you're now giving it away on GamePass... the money has to come from somewhere, but I promise there will be a price increase on GamePass before the end of September...
 
poppabk said:
Im not sure what they mean by pre-promotion? If they mean releasing tons of info basically outlining everything in the game then I dont see that as necessarily a bad thing. If they are talking about reducing marketing, which is a hallmark of MS, then I think they may be in for a rude awakening. True everyone knows that its the yearly CoD, but CoD kinda exists as the behomoth it is because of the constant hype cycles.
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Mibu no ookami said:
It's definitely about cutting costs... I believe ABK was making 80% on PSN sales rather than 70%. You lose that revenue AND the marketing deal with Sony? And you're now giving it away on GamePass... the money has to come from somewhere, but I promise there will be a price increase on GamePass before the end of September...
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This is what I am thinking.

It's honestly kinda pointless to not pre-promote it, these things exist as behemoths to us because they are marketed 24/7.

For example EA FC is in every single big football contest or match. With almost no exceptions. When you fuck with that marketing support bad things happen.

The other issue is this:
Black Ops 7 marks the first time the Black Ops sub-series has seen back-to-back releases, and comes just a year after Black Ops 6's launch. Some fans are already saying this makes Black Ops 7 feel like a stop-gap, as 2023's Modern Warfare 3 was considered by some within the community given it followed 2022's Modern Warfare 2 just a year later. Activision, however, has insisted Black Ops 7 "delivers the full Call of Duty package for our players."

The expectation is Infinity Ward will return with a new Modern Warfare game in 2026, resetting the Call of Duty cycle once again.
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Having a MW3 (which launched with full Sony marketing btw) right when your biggest competitor is placing big dev resources and doing a lot of marketing to build-up their next iteration is kinda risky imo.
 
Astray said:

Activision Says It's Doing Almost No Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Pre-Promotion: 'We're Setting This Up More Like a Beyonce Album Dropping'



Not sure what they're thinking with this strategy, feels like a cost cutting measure now that COD doesn't have Sony's marketing funds and worldwide reach.
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Don't talk daft, they don't need to do anything it will sell loads regardless.
 
Astray said:
This is what I am thinking.

It's honestly kinda pointless to not pre-promote it, these things exist as behemoths to us because they are marketed 24/7.

For example EA FC is in every single big football contest or match. With almost no exceptions. When you fuck with that marketing support bad things happen.

The other issue is this:

Having a MW3 (which launched with full Sony marketing btw) right when your biggest competitor is placing big dev resources and doing a lot of marketing to build-up their next iteration is kinda risky imo.
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I think EA is probably reducing general cost to put more money into battlefield.

Risky time for ABK and CoD.
 
Punished Miku said:
I doubt it.
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You doubt what?

That EA is doubling down investment on Battlefield? That two BLOPs in a row might reduce sales especially if it's seen as low effort? That there will probably be a battlefield marketing campaign with Sony next year?

All of these things are inherently define as risk.
 
Mibu no ookami said:
I think EA is probably reducing general cost to put more money into battlefield.

Risky time for ABK and CoD.
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Kind of a risky time for EA/Battlefield too.

EA FC is underperforming apparently, Dragon Age flopped and their financials got a bit soft as a result.
 
Mibu no ookami said:
You doubt what?

That EA is doubling down investment on Battlefield? That two BLOPs in a row might reduce sales especially if it's seen as low effort? That there will probably be a battlefield marketing campaign with Sony next year?

All of these things are inherently define as risk.
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I doubt any of that is really going to be risky. I quoted that so I thought it was clear. Battlefield will likely just bring even more interest into the military shooter genre. Black Ops is popular. I don't see any major risk here.
 
Why spend 100s of millions on a marketing campaign when all you need is a date and hour for when it launches on game pass?
 
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