The strange rollout of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on PlayStation platforms continues. On Thursday, Activision and Treyarch announced the release of the first two Black Ops games on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, dashing the hopes of PlayStation players who were hoping for remastered versions of the two classic games. The new Black Ops and Black Ops 2 releases are straightforward ports, not enhanced versions of those games, much to the dismay of many fans.
The new releases of Black Ops and Black Ops 2 for PS4 and PS5 are pretty limited in scope. They include the three core Black Ops pillars, Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies, but the games do not support 120 Hz refresh rates, nor do they run at 4K resolution or feature field-of-view sliders. The ports also do not support cross-platform play. Activision, Treyarch, and port developer Iron Galaxy never promised any of those features, but players are still expressing frustration at the lack of new polish.
Players are also reporting that features like theater mode and visible player counts are not included in the new Black Ops ports.
Price is a big sticking point for players
There are once again a lot of people playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, thanks to Xbox One backward compatibility.Treyarch/Activision
The price of the two games is dividing gamers: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 for PS4 and PS5 cost $39.99 each, though there’s a $20 discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Activision is also selling a $29.99 season pass for each game, which are also discounted for PS Plus subscribers down to $9.89. For a pair of games released in 2010 and 2012, the standard asking price is not sitting well — but Activision and Sony are likely betting that anyone who wants to play these games will want to play them online, and will have a PlayStation Plus account anyway.
Suffice it to say, many PlayStation fans are reporting feeling underwhelmed by the releases, which, beyond a handful of posts on social media, haven’t been promoted by much by Sony or Activision. No trailers. No blog posts. Just tweets.
No cross-play in Black Ops and Black Ops 2 might be a good thing
While players are reporting mixed success with getting Black Ops and Black Ops 2 cross-play working between the PS4 and PS5 versions of the games, one thing’s certain: The PlayStation ports do not support cross-play with Xbox. That’s a positive, as multiplayer in the original Xbox 360 versions of the Black Ops games, which are playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X through backward compatibility, has been “hacked to death,” according to fans.
In fact, players have petitioned Treyarch and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to release a server update for Black Ops and Black Ops 2 on Xbox to make them functionally playable again.
Since the PlayStation ports of Black Ops and Black Ops 2 were announced back in June, fans have been hoping that the Xbox and Windows PC versions of the games would get updates. But Activision and Treyarch have made no such announcement that they plan to revive those games beyond this week’s PlayStation ports.
Call of Duty: Black Ops was originally released in 2010 for PlayStation 3, Wii, Windows PC, and Xbox 360. Black Ops 2 arrived two years later on PS3, Wii U, Windows PC, and Xbox 360. Both games are available on PC via Steam, and the Xbox 360 versions are playable via backward compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Activision has revisited a beloved Call of Duty entry once before, with 2016’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, a slick update to 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The most recent entry in the Black Ops sub-franchise is 2025’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
Activision plans to release Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on Oct. 23. Modern Warfare 4 is set in a “rapidly escalating global conflict centered on the Korean Peninsula,” according to developer Infinity Ward. This year’s Call of Duty will be released on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. Modern Warfare 4 will be the first COD on a Nintendo platform since 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts for Wii U.
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