Call of Duty Black Ops 7 release date estimate, trailers, story, and latest news

When is the Black Ops 7 release date? This June, Activision dropped a casual reveal trailer for the next game in the Call of Duty line-up as part of a jam-packed Summer Game Fest weekend. The annualised series tends to bounce between Black Ops, Modern Warfare, and other Call of Duty sub-series, giving the respective teams time to bring their game to fruition.

For the first time in Black Ops history, however, we're going straight from one BO game to another following 2024's Black Ops 6. That said, we're not continuing the story where it left off. Instead, Black Ops 7 takes us to a futuristic 2035, 40 years on from the '90s setting of BO6. Familiar faces do return in the FPS game, though, while mind-bending chaos takes the series to a place it's never been before. Here's everything we know about the BO7 release date so far.

The Black Ops 7 release date is likely to land between late October and mid-November, based on the traditional release schedule of Call of Duty games. BO7 will be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC via Xbox PC, Battle.net, and Steam.

There is usually some overlap between the launch of the new game's campaign and the previous title's final season. Likewise, the new game's first season typically lands after the launch of its campaign.

Currently, we don't know when the final Black Ops 6 season will fall, but we can make an educated guess based on previous seasons. Season 4 is scheduled to end on August 7, 2025, and BO6 seasons have so far lasted somewhere between nine and ten weeks on average. Season 5, therefore, would take us to around October 9, 2025, so a short season 6 would run well into November. This would fit with the BO7 campaign launching sometime in early November, with a season one kick-off in December, 2025, similar to the launch timeline of Modern Warfare 3.

Black Ops 7 trailers

The Black Ops 7's official teaser trailer already gives us a lot of information about what to expect when the BO7 release date rolls around.

Firstly, we're introduced to The Guild, a futuristic tech company that appears to be saving lives, providing highly advanced robotics for life-saving endeavors in war-stricken areas. As one of these robots walks David Mason into their headquarters, it speaks of their technology, software, and systems, before introducing Mason to Emma Kagan, the CEO of The Guild, voiced by Kiernan Shipka.

However, in a mind-bending scene halfway through the trailer, Mason suddenly finds himself in an Inception-esque cityscape, before winding up face-to-face with his enemy, Raul Menendez. Suggested by the red butterfly accompanying Mason on this journey, the one constant in every area, Menedez is seemingly involved in The Guild in some way, so their intentions are likely not as innocent as they seem.

Who is David Mason in Call of Duty BO7?

David Mason was one of the two Black Ops 2 protagonists, alongside his father, Alex Mason. During the events of BO2, a young David was kidnapped by none other than our BO7 villain Menendez, who is also responsible, in part, for the death of Alex. He was then raised by Frank Woods, one of the main characters in BO6.

As an adult, David, nicknamed 'Section', followed his father and adoptive uncle into the military, joining the Navy SEALs. This is where we find him in the second part of Black Ops 2. Set in 2025, Section leads a team investigating Menendez and finds out that he is building his own weapons and military drones. In fact, look closely at the BO7 trailer above, and there are some similarities between the weapons shown and those developed by Menendez in BO2. Presumably, The Guild was his next step after being thwarted by Mason at the end of Black Ops 2.

That's everything we know about the Black Ops 7 release date, but we'll let you know when more is revealed this Summer. In the meantime, you could replay all the BO6 campaign and refamiliarize yourself with the Black Ops 6 missions, or ensure you've unlocked all the BO6 camos in multiplayer in time for the BO7 launch. We've got plenty of BO6 guides to help you get everything done before then.