With Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Treyarch Fell Into The Rabbit Hole And Never Got Out

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November 9, 2025 marks the 15-year anniversary of Call of Duty: Black Ops' release. Below, we look at how it departed from previous Call of Duty campaigns and defined developer Treyarch’s contributions to the franchise going forward.

During the infancy of Activision's Call of Duty franchise, Treyarch was the other Call of Duty studio. Comparisons between Treyarch and series creator Infinity Ward were common on internet forums, and a general sentiment among fans and even some industry figures was that the former was the franchise's "B-team."

Treyarch's 2006 game Call of Duty 3 was a competent World War II shooter, but it was quickly overshadowed the following year by Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare--a downright revolutionary game that set a new standard for first-person shooter campaigns and online multiplayer modes. Treyarch's subsequent game, 2008's World at War, threw the series back in time and mostly played like a World War II re-skin of Modern Warfare.

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