A former Treyarch developer is calling for video game publishers to pay retroactive royalties to original creators following the commercial surge of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Gavin Goslin, who worked as a level designer on the original 2010 and 2012 shooters, criticized Activision and parent company Microsoft this week on LinkedIn after the July 9, 2026 digital re-releases topped industry sales charts without generating residuals for the developers who built them.

According to VGC, the unannounced $40 digital ports quickly dominated the summer release calendar. In his public post, Goslin described watching the legacy titles generate millions in fresh revenue as bittersweet, noting that the original teams endured intense working conditions over a decade ago to ship the games. While the strong player turnout is shaping Activision's future franchise strategy ahead of the October 23 launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, it has also sparked a wider industry debate over how creative talent is compensated when classic catalog titles are resold on modern hardware.

A Bittersweet Commercial Triumph

Goslin argued in his LinkedIn statement that because the new PlayStation versions are straightforward ports rather than ground-up remakes with major new features, the original development staff should share in the financial returns. As reported by IGN, Goslin called for the gaming sector to adopt residual payment structures similar to those used in the film, television, music, and publishing industries.

"As a developer who actually worked on both Black Ops and Black Ops 2, seeing these charts is bittersweet," Goslin wrote. "I poured my life into those games, spending countless, brutal hours in crunch alongside an incredibly talented team to make sure they were perfect. Seeing our blood, sweat, and tears still dominating the charts in 2026 is amazing, but its hard to watch the suits rake in giant financial windfalls from our old code while the actual creators don’t see a dime of it."

Goslin added that Activision and Microsoft are "printing money off of work completed over a decade ago," arguing that if corporate executives receive bonuses tied to the performance of legacy catalog drops, "that wealth needs to be shared retroactively. Legacy revenue should mean legacy rewards for the devs who survived the crunch to build them."

As noted by the International Business Times UK, Goslin's remarks represent an advocacy push for industry-wide reform rather than a legal claim based on existing employment contracts, and there is no indication that Microsoft or Xbox plans to introduce a royalty system. However, the discussion arrives at a pivotal moment for legacy preservation, as Microsoft recently announced its Xbox Labs initiative amid a wider proliferation of AI-generated browser ports of classic games.

Breaking Down the Sales and Player Numbers

While Activision has not publicly disclosed official unit sales or net profit figures for the July 9 PlayStation releases, multiple third-party analytics firms have tracked a substantial commercial response. According to Circana's monthly U.S. sales report, Black Ops II ranked as the best-selling game in the United States for July 2026, while the original Black Ops finished in fifth place. Both titles also immediately entered Circana's U.S. Top 10 chart for weekly active users.

Exact sales estimates vary across industry reports. VGC and IGN cited estimates from Alinea Analytics indicating the two games sold a combined 11.2 million copies in July, generating roughly $435 million in gross value within a single month. Meanwhile, LevelUp referenced reports placing combined sales at 11.3 million copies within weeks of launch, outperforming rival releases such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, while earlier European coverage from play3.de circulated an initial estimate of more than 7 million copies sold in the first month.

The summer catalog drops provided a critical boost for the broader franchise following a difficult 2025. According to The Game Business, last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 suffered a 50% launch decline in Europe compared to the prior year and finished at No. 5 on the annual U.S. sales chart—the franchise's lowest domestic ranking since 2008's World at War—allowing Battlefield 6 to claim the title of 2025's best-selling shooter. Data from Ampere indicates that while Call of Duty routinely maintained around 40 million monthly active players in 2024, that figure fell into the mid-20 million range in 2026 before the July Black Ops ports propelled the franchise player count back toward the 40 million mark over the summer.

How Nostalgia Is Shaping Activision's Future Strategy

For players, the biggest takeaway from the summer surge is how it will influence upcoming releases and potential classic ports. Speaking with The Game Business, Activision Chief Marketing Officer Tyler Bahl admitted the company underestimated the appetite for the 2010 and 2012 titles.

"We are definitely leaning into the nostalgia of playing with your friends," Bahl said. "The Black Ops ports were huge successes. We thought they would do well, we didn’t think they would do that well. But you can see that pent-up demand of being able to get back to the good old days of playing with your friends on a Friday night and having fun."

Bahl noted that Activision is applying lessons from those ports to current and future projects. He candidly acknowledged that releasing back-to-back direct sequels—specifically Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3, followed directly by Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7—was a strategic misstep that left the community wanting a stronger tonal shift. To course-correct, Activision is using the October 23, 2026 release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (launching on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC) to return to a grounded, cinematic military shooter that concludes the current Modern Warfare narrative arc. Bahl also confirmed according to Oduu that groundwork has already been laid for a brand-new Call of Duty sub-franchise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did the PlayStation ports of Black Ops 1 and 2 fix the online hacking issues?

Yes. According to LevelUp, while the $40 PS4 and PS5 ports are near-exact reproductions containing the original single-player campaigns, multiplayer, and Zombies modes, Activision equipped the new versions with dedicated servers. This upgrade effectively neutralized the widespread cheating and hacking issues that plagued the legacy PlayStation 3 versions.

Will Activision release more classic Call of Duty ports for modern consoles?

Activision has not officially announced specific titles for future classic ports. However, Chief Marketing Officer Tyler Bahl stated that the company took significant learnings from the surprise success of the Black Ops re-releases and is applying them to future games, fueling strong industry expectation that more legacy catalog releases will follow.

Are original video game developers legally entitled to royalties from ports?

In the video game industry, most developers work under work-for-hire agreements that do not include residual or royalty provisions when code is reused or ported to new hardware. As the International Business Times UK notes, Gavin Goslin's call for retroactive wealth-sharing is an argument for changing industry compensation standards rather than a reflection of current contractual entitlements.

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