Black Ops level designer calls success of ports a bitter spectacle and urges paying developers royalties

The surprise success of the Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 re-releases has been tough to watch for Gavin Goslin, a level designer on the original games. In his view, the people who built the shooters should get a cut of the new sales.

In July, Activision shadow-dropped Black Ops (2010) and Black Ops 2 (2012) on PS4 and PS5, with no prior announcement. The re-releases performed strongly: the sequel topped the US Circana chart for July 2026, and Alinea Analytics estimates that the two games sold a combined 11.2 million copies in a month, bringing in roughly $435 million in revenue.

The success of Activision and its parent company Microsoft left Goslin with mixed feelings. He pointed out that the new versions are almost identical to the originals and offer no meaningful additions, so the developers should receive a share of the revenue.

The recent digital release of Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 on PlayStation proved a few things. First, the modern gaming market is missing the high-quality, polished-to-perfection games we once got. Second, these classic titles still make Activision and Microsoft a huge amount of money. [...]

As a developer who actually worked on both titles, it's painful to watch. I put my heart and soul into these games, and spent countless grueling hours of overtime with an incredibly talented team to make them as good as they could be.

Goslin believes the leadership at these companies should share the resulting "wealth" with the team retroactively.

It's amazing to see the fruits of our labor still sitting at the top of the charts in 2026. But it's hard to watch executives rake in huge profits from our old code while the people who created it don't see a cent.

If executives are getting massive bonuses thanks to the longevity of these classic games, that wealth should be shared retroactively. Revenue from old games should mean rewards for the developers who survived crunch to make them.

In a recent interview with The Game Business, Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl said the success of the Black Ops and Black Ops 2 re-releases came as a surprise. He hopes the interest in the classics will push audiences toward buying the new shooter Modern Warfare 4, which launches this week.