Clad in close-fitting black outfits, two performers get into stance for a fight scene. The cameras surrounding the massive stage in Playa Vista start rolling.<\/p>\n
One turns around slowly, pantomimes being shot, and carefully, deliberately, arches himself backward, clawing at the air before a stunt coordinator helps ease him toward a black mattress.<\/p>\n
That movement is translated into dots and lines on a nearby computer, transmitted by the round, white sensors embedded in the suits\u2019 colorful almond-shaped patches. Later, those will be fleshed out into characters and scenes in the new \u201cCall of Duty: Black Ops 7\u201d game, which debuts Friday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of the blockbuster production effort that goes into making one of the most popular video game franchises ever. \u201cCall of Duty,\u201d from Santa Monica publisher Activision, has ranked as the top-selling video game series in the U.S. for 16 straight years and has sold more than 500 million copies globally since the first installment was released in 2003. <\/p>\n
And as one of the few franchises with an annual release schedule, hitting that deadline takes an army. About 3,000 people worked on \u201cBlack Ops 7\u201d over the course of four years. <\/p>\n
Activision executives declined to discuss the game\u2019s budget but called it a \u201csignificant investment.\u201d Top video game franchises can have production costs of $250 million or more \u2014 higher than most big-budget Hollywood films.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, every year we have to launch a new \u2018Star Wars.\u2019 Every year we have to launch a new \u2018Avatar,\u2019 \u201d said Tyler Bahl, chief marketing officer at Activision. \u201cSo we have to think about, how do we do this in an unexpected way?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we want to treat our games like an absolute blockbuster,\u201d said Matt Cox, general manager of \u201cCall of Duty\u201d at Activision, who has worked on the franchise for more than 10 years. \u201cThe investment is there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activision\u2019s Treyarch game production studio is where Call of Duty video game is produced.<\/p>\n
(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
The franchise has become a key driver of Activision\u2019s success, analysts said. <\/p>\n
The base game consistently sells more than 20 million units annually, not including the live services components that update after a game\u2019s launch and keep players engaged, monthly battle passes that unlock rewards or even the mobile game, all of which add up to an estimated annual sales of about $3.5 billion to $4 billion, said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital.<\/p>\n
In fact, the huge popularity of \u201cCall of Duty\u201d helped spur tech giant Microsoft\u2019s interest in acquiring Activision, a $69-billion deal that was completed in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt revolutionized the first-person shooter and has done a great job, year in and year out, of being the best of breed, building the largest community and evolving, pivoting to where video game players are all over the world,\u201d Handler said. \u201cThere are other [shooter] franchises that are trying to replicate its success … but nobody\u2019s been able to match the consistency of \u2018Call of Duty.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n To maintain its annual cadence, Activision rotates game development among several of its studios, including Playa Vista-based Treyarch, which co-developed \u201cBlack Ops 6\u201d and \u201cBlack Ops 7\u201d in parallel \u2014 the first time that two \u201cCall of Duty: Black Ops\u201d games came out in subsequent years.<\/p>\n
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