The launch of Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Should have been a celebration for Activision. The annual meeting is capable of mobilizing millions of players and fueling the video game debate for weeks, but this year suffers a wave of negative comments. The opus will remain as one of the worst starts in the franchise, sanctioned by a user rating of 1,7/10 sur Metacritica historically low score for a series accustomed to records.
This massive rejection on the part of players of yesteryear is partly explained by a growing weariness with regard to the subject of the use of artificial intelligence in the creation of game content. From the first hours following its release, social networks and community platforms relayed the same questions. Players identified Calling Cards whose style was strongly reminiscent of certain images generated by default by AI, sometimes even inspired by pseudo-Ghibli variants that have been circulating on the internet for months.
When the controversy swelled, Activision confirmed that generative tools had indeed been used for part of the game’s visual assets. A revelation which, far from calming the debates, reinforced the idea that the studio had sought to save time and reduce costs to the detriment of the work of human artists and the graphic identity of a blockbuster billed for more than 80 euros.
Black Ops 7 bows to the shooters of the year
This use of AI is all the more difficult as the competition is showing renewed energy at the same time. Battlefield 6 won over early fans despite an average battle royale mode, whileArc Raiders stands out as one of the surprises of the moment by relying on an AI which actually learns from the player’s behavior to adapt its threat level.
In a context where FPS are trying to find a new lease of life, the impression that Call of Duty favors technological shortcuts over real gameplay innovations is particularly poorly received. Where some competitors use artificial intelligence to enrich the experience, Black Ops 7 gives the feeling of using it only for utilitarian tasks.
Added to this unease is a series of design decisions already contested even before the controversy broke out. The single-player campaign, for example, allows no pausing or manual saving, even when playing entirely with bots. This is an incomprehensible situation for many players who see it as a disguised way of imposing permanent connectivity. All this feeds the idea that the publisher no longer takes into account the feedback from its community, which returned en masse last year.
The criticisms that accumulate therefore not only relate to the quality of the content, but to what Activision’s decisions seem to say about the direction taken by the franchise. The violent reaction observed at the start of the week shows how quickly trust can erode between a brand and its players.
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