Black Ops 7 cuts carry‑forward skins to “restore authenticity”

Call of Duty finally hits the brakes on the Fortnite-ification

This caught my attention because it’s the first time in years Activision is openly acknowledging what a lot of us have been yelling into the void about: Call of Duty’s identity has been getting drowned by a tsunami of crossover chaos. In a new community update, Activision says Black Ops 7 is aiming for an “authentic” vibe and, to get there, Operators, Operator Skins, and Weapons from Black Ops 6 will not carry forward. Progression items like Zombies Gobblegums and XP Tokens will make the jump, and your old cosmetics will still work in Warzone.

• Cosmetic carry-forward is dead for BO7: no BO6 Operators, skins, or weapons in the new game.
• Progression items (Zombies Gobblegums, XP Tokens) will transfer; Warzone still supports old cosmetics.
• Activision cites a push for “authentic” Black Ops tone after community backlash.
• Great reset could help tone-but it also risks burning players who paid for bundles.

Breaking down the announcement

Here’s the plain-English version. For the past few years, Call of Duty leaned into an MCU-style crossover economy. Some of it worked-the ’80s Action Heroes event with Rambo and McClane at least nodded to COD’s pulse-pounding fantasy. But in Black Ops 6 the dial spun into parody: Squid Game, Beavis and Butt-Head, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a shark-headed guy, Zeus cosplay-the store felt like a variety show doing a skit about Call of Duty. Now Activision is saying the quiet part out loud: the series drifted, and Black Ops 7 needs a firmer, more grounded identity.

The fix? A hard reset. Your BO6 cosmetics and weapons won’t come into BO7. Only progression-adjacent items like Gobblegums and XP Tokens carry over, while Warzone remains the catch-all wardrobe for your older purchases.

Why this matters now

COD has been chasing live-service trends since Warzone blew up, and you could see the pull: Fortnite’s crossovers print money, so why not COD? But Call of Duty’s strength has always been believable intensity—guns that feel like guns, black ops that feel covert, a vibe that lets the sillier stuff land as a treat, not the main course. When the store started dictating the tone of the game, the mood broke. That mismatch has been louder lately as competitors talk up grounded military sandboxes again, and players are asking for something with a spine.

From that lens, this is a smart step. Resetting cosmetics gives Treyarch room to define BO7’s look from scratch, without trying to reconcile shark helmets with a clandestine thriller. The studio says bundles will be crafted to “fit the Black Ops identity,” which is exactly the guardrail COD has been missing.

The gamer’s perspective: what’s gained and what’s lost

Let’s be real: this will sting for anyone who sunk money into BO6 cosmetics expecting multi-year longevity. Even if Warzone preserves your old skins, the mainline annual title is where a lot of us live for the first few seasons. Losing that continuity undercuts trust, and Activision will have to earn it back by making BO7’s default look compelling—meaning better baseline outfits, cleaner camo grinds, and fewer FOMO traps.

On the upside, a fresh slate could make moment-to-moment play feel coherent again. No more firefights where a neon alien, a network TV cartoon, and a special forces operator share a room like they wandered out of different universes. If Treyarch nails a unified aesthetic, even standard operators can feel cool again—think Black Ops 1’s gritty field gear meets the paranoia of Cold War-era espionage, rather than a rotating door of cross-brand cameos.

I don’t buy that crossovers will vanish entirely. They’re too lucrative, and when done sparingly—Terminator done with restraint, a period-fitting movie cameo—they can be fun. The key will be guardrails: set-era appropriate, visually subdued options that read as tactical cosplay instead of a theme park costume. If the first two or three seasons respect that line, players will notice—and forgive the reset faster.

Reading between the lines: the business and the bet

The carry-forward experiment was always a double-edged sword. It made purchases feel safer, but it also chained each new game’s art direction to last year’s store catalogue. Cutting the cord is Activision admitting the brand needs a palette cleanse. The risk is short-term revenue: if players feel burned, they spend less. The counter is obvious—make BO7 look and feel so strong that players want its gear specifically, because it belongs in this world.

Success here looks like this: BO7 launches with a cohesive operator set, grounded finishing moves, weapon blueprints that look like field mods rather than comic book props, and a store that prioritizes variants you might see on a shadow op with just enough style to feel personal. If we see that out of the gate, along with clear communication from Treyarch about guidelines for collabs, the community mood flips quickly.

What to watch next

• The Season 1 store: are bundles restrained and era-consistent, or is it business as usual with new marketing language?
• Base-game cosmetics: do default operators and camo grinds look good enough that you don’t feel forced into the shop?
• Event cadence: fewer “everything, everywhere, all at once” tie-ins; more Black Ops-flavored, lore-connected events.
• Communication: Treyarch says more details are coming—look for concrete guidelines, not just buzzwords.

TL;DR

Black Ops 7 is ditching BO6 cosmetic carry-forward to re-center the series on a more believable Black Ops identity. Progression items transfer and Warzone keeps your old skins, but the main game is getting a clean visual slate. It’s the right call creatively—now Treyarch has to prove it with a grounded store and strong default cosmetics that earn back player trust.