It’s been an interesting time for Call of Duty. While we reviewed the game as a pretty impressive package overall, there’s been plenty of focus on what many critics and players felt was an underwhelming campaign. Tag onto that the renewed competition from franchises like Battlefield and newcomers like ARC Raiders, Call of Duty is definitely being challenged in the shooter arena.
Despite clearly not doing as well as last years gargantuan Call of Duty Black Ops 6, Call of Duty is still pulling in the numbers. Xbox proudly declared that the Call of Duty franchise is still a hit with players, and that it was the ‘#1 Franchise’ on Xbox Game Pass for both November and 2025 overall.
So as the dust from launch settles, and Season 1 for Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is in full swing (go check out our impressions here), we caught up with Kevin Drew and Matt Scronce – two Design Directors from Treyarch, main developers of this year’s Call of Duty. While we wanted to chat a little more about the origins of campaign, and some of the creative decisions there, Treyarch didn’t have much more to add beyond what’s already on the record. Instead, we chatted about Endgame, Zombies, Multiplayer, leaderboard events, wall jumps, anti-cheat and more.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
XboxEra: First of all, a warm welcome and thank you from the staff and community of XboxEra! Let’s start with a simple one: who are you, and what do you do in the gargantuan project that is Call of Duty on a day-to-day basis?
KD: I’m Kevin Drew, Design Director for Zombies and Endgame at Treyarch.
MS: I’m Matt Scronce, Design Director at Treyarch.
Endgame
XboxEra: Endgame has become quite the PvE mainstay over here at XboxEra. In your experience, how is the community reacting to it? Was Endgame always a key part of Black Ops 7‘s design philosophy from the start?
KD: The community reaction to Endgame has been great to see! It has been awesome to see players enjoying the mode in the ways we hoped they would. Endgame really encourages cooperation and supports one of the goals for this game, which is shared progression across all modes. Endgame was always part of the plan for Black Ops 7. We wanted to craft a big map experience that took a lot of learnings from some of our previous iterations and put it firmly within our Campaign world, adding so much more for players who enjoy our PVE experiences.
XboxEra: Season 01 brought The Giant from Origins, the Z-Rex and more into Endgame. For now, it looks like this mode is mainly offering a “best of” from enemies, locations and mechanics seen in Black Ops 7 and prior games. Can we expect some truly brand-new encounters going forward?
KD: What is great about Endgame is that we can give new life to some of the best content from Zombies that most players might not be able to reach or even know about. Of course, we will also be bringing brand-new encounters throughout the seasons as well. The Colossus of Avalon, for example, is something inspired by Zombies but at a scale that we have never seen before. Expect a mix of story content, things that challenge the player, and new ways to power yourself up.
Multiplayer
XboxEra: Maps like Den, Exposure, and Homestead are already some of my favorite multiplayer arenas in recent Call of Duty memory. Are 3-lane maps finally here to stay in Black Ops 7? Or do you plan to explore different variations in subsequent seasons?
MS: Those are some of my favorites, too! We’ve talked about our rules for Multiplayer maps before. Things like pacing, symmetry, cover placement, power positions, and of course lane definition. In Black Ops 7, as you’ve noted, we really came back to those core principles and rules of signature Treyarch level design and plan for the majority of our maps to live within those rules.
XboxEra: The map designs, the wall-jumps, the tweaks to slides but also the removal of the default tac-sprint have undoubtedly changed the game’s pace a bit – featuring a tad more verticality but reducing the pace. It is a bit closer now to classic Call of Duty games now. How is this translating to players’ experience, in your opinion – from casuals to things like CDL?
MS: The reception to our updated Omnimovement has been great. We’re always looking for ways to increase the fluidity of our game’s movement while reducing complexity, which was the case with the removal of Tactical Sprint by default in Black Ops 7. Additionally, when we add something like Wall Jump, we wanted to make sure it was simple to perform and feel like an action hero, but also something you don’t have to do. Everyone knows how to jump on the ground, and Wall Jump is that exact mechanical off a wall. On the competitive side of things, players obviously know how to use the movement very well, so we’ve already seen some amazing highlights in their first matches.
Online and events
XboxEra: We already have played through various events. Unlike previous games, these aren’t community-based ones, with players having to reach an XP threshold together – it is individual and competitive. This means that the players who grind the most get the best rewards. How do you balance rewarding players that are able to invest the time versus those that are more casual players that still want to be able to achieve similar rewards for their time?
MS: It’s been awesome to see the reception and feedback on our first Leaderboard Events of Black Ops 7. We said we would be bringing more camos than ever before, and Events are just one of many ways players can get some of these amazing camos. While the first two Leaderboard Events have been score-based, we’ve got so many more events and ways to earn some really fun camos, Attachments, and full Weapons through our live seasons.
XboxEra: All online multiplayer games face the challenge of cheating. It appears there has been a lot of investment in Ricochet Anti-Cheat efforts and requirements of TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. How have the results been thus far since the launch of Black Ops 7?
Activision: RICOCHET Anti-Cheat has delivered strong results since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 across console and PC, and our systems are detecting and removing cheaters faster than ever. Our TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements for PC play a key role in that success by strengthening our security foundation and closing off common entry points used by cheats. We’re also continuing to put pressure on cheat providers. Over the last year, we’ve shut down over 50 cheat providers, including major vendors and nearly 40 reseller groups, and disrupted nearly 300 reseller operations through ban waves and legal action. Keeping online gaming fair is an industry-wide effort, and we’re committed to staying ahead.
Zombies
XboxEra: When we look at Zombies, between the more accessible and linear Directed Mode and the much more classical and hardcore Cursed variant, there’s been more ways than ever to experience this exciting mode. Do you think this is the way, going forward? Was this a successful approach to satisfy newcomers and veterans alike?
KD: I really believe so. A mode like Zombies means so many things to different fans. By creating these different ways to play, it allows us to deliver more of what each group is expecting. This time around because of Cursed, we can really push the difficulty and complexity of secrets within the mode so there is always something to hunt without making Standard overwhelming. We are also continuing to iterate on Directed Mode to make it easier for casual players by slowing down how fast Rounds advance along the Quest and removing sprinting zombies. This should help getting through a big Main Quest like Ashes of the Damned.
XboxEra: The new Astra Malorum map in Zombies is really exciting. Very unique visuals, tons of fun game ideas, and some absolutely bonkers easter eggs. How do you top the crew going into space with the next map, anyway?!
KD: Being in the Dark Aether means there aren’t any limits on where we can go next. Astra Malorum is just one of many unique locations we are going to this year. Each map has its own identity and special ideas with it. When you have maps that excite the team, you get the best ideas for Easter eggs because they tie directly into the set pieces and mechanics for that map.
Until next time…
And that would be all for today! We’d like to once again thank Kevin Drew and Matt Scronce, the rest of the staff at Treyarch, and everyone at Activision and Microsoft who allowed us to organize this nice chat about the present and the future of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
If you’re looking into playing this year’s slightly futuristic COD, be sure to read our extensive review of the game, our impressions of the brand new Season 01, and stay tuned to XboxEra to get more news, rumors, impressions and much more. It’ll be a busy year for Call of Duty, and we’ll be here to tell you all about i!
