Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s Decision to Remove Carry Forward Gets a Mixed Response

Recent news of Activision’s decision to remove Carry Forward for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is being met with a mixed response from the game’s community. While the majority of Call of Duty players appear to be ecstatic about entering Black Ops 7 without cartoon operators in their lobbies, others are incredibly upset that their purchased bundles and favorite weapons won’t be making their way into the game.

Unrealistic operator skins and goofy cosmetic items are nothing new to the Call of Duty franchise, but they do appear to have ramped up massively with the release of Black Ops 6 last year. During the game’s life cycle, Activision has collaborated with the likes of American Dad, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Squid Game, and many more. These events and collaborations often bring new operator skins to the game, which many believe are ruining the aesthetic of the game and stripping Call of Duty of its identity. After many months of outrage over Black Ops 6‘s unrealistic cosmetic items, Activision has finally responded. But not everyone appears to be happy with the studio’s decision.

Carry Forward’s Removal Hasn’t Pleased Every Call of Duty Player

On August 26, Activision shocked fans by issuing a new statement and confirming that it would be walking back the Carry Forward feature for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Aside from Double XP Tokens and Gobblegums, no content from Black Ops 6 will be brought forward into this year’s Call of Duty title, but not everyone is happy about the decision. While users such as IceManIsaac called the change “amazing,” others strongly disagree. Reddit user Epic-Toaster-Man responded to the decision by saying, “People are acting like it’s a good thing even though it’s just an excuse for the devs to put more micro transactions and prestige skins so people have to grind them more.”

Some fans also believe that this is an anti-consumer move, as not everyone is convinced that Activision will hold back from releasing more unrealistic cosmetic items during Black Ops 7‘s life cycle. Zombies content creator MrRoflWaffles took to Twitter after the announcement and said, “If COD now proceeds to release a load of random brand collab skins that ruin the BO7 aesthetic, then the lack of carry-forward here ends up actually just being bad for the consumer. Basically just making people rebuy stuff.”

It may have angered some fans, but after the huge backlash Black Ops 7‘s worldwide reveal trailer has been receiving, Activision had to address the controversy one way or another. The trailer has nearly 400,000 dislikes at the time of writing, with hundreds of comments stating that they will be pre-ordering Battlefield 6 instead.

The decision to walk back the Carry Forward feature could be directly tied to the success of the Battlefield 6 open beta. EA’s shooter is back for the first time in four years, and with a much more grounded and realistic approach than Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. There are plenty of other elements that make the game great, but its approach to cosmetic items seems to have been a strong reason as to why it pulled in so many Call of Duty fans this year. The beta was so successful that it managed to surpass Call of Duty‘s all-time peak concurrent players on Steam by more than 30,000.