We now know when Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is coming out, how much it will cost, and that it’s not coming to Switch 2 at launch, at least if a new report from Dealabs writer billbil-kun is to believed, and they usually are. The apparent leaks raise questions about why the latest Call of Duty is still coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but not Nintendo’s newest hardware which is more capable than both of those platforms.
According to billbil-kun, Microsoft will be revealing the launch info for Black Ops 7 at Gamescom next week. That includes European pricing of €80, its standard cost overseas, suggesting it will also remain at $70 in the U.S. despite warnings earlier in the year that Microsoft would be raising the prices of some of its fall releases. The company retreated from that with The Outer Worlds 2 earlier this summer, and now it appears Black Ops 7 won’t be crossing the $80 Rubicon either.
The release date for Black Ops 7 is apparently November 14, the latest an entry in the annualized multiplayer shooter franchise has ever appeared (this corroborates a similar leak from July). But billbil-kun writes that none of the release information currently mentions Switch 2, making it seem unlikely the game will arrive on the handheld hybrid this year despite a 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the platform.
While Activision confirmed both sides are still committed to making that happen with plans to reveal more information in the future, it seems like Call of Duty is skipping Nintendo’s consoles again for the 12th year in a row, and two years into Microsoft’s completed acquisition of the publisher. One possible reason for the delay is that Nintendo has been just as stingy with sharing Switch 2 dev kits with Microsoft as with anyone else.
While Activision executives met with Nintendo to discuss the specs for the Switch 2 in December of 2022, it’s possible the company was among those third-party development partners who missed out on pre-release access to the new hardware to begin porting games over to it. That shortage, potentially fueled by Nintendo’s paranoia about leaks, has reportedly led to lots of developers playing catch up with the Switch 2’s release. Even the makers of Black Ops 7, it seems.
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