Rumor: Call of Duty 2025 Pegged to Be Black Ops 7 Based on Datamined Info With Infinity Ward Returning for COD 2026

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn’t even out yet, new information has been uncovered regarding the future of Call of Duty, and if it’s to be believed, it seems that Call of Duty 2025 may in fact be a follow up this year’s Call of Duty, as in we’ll be getting Black Ops 7 a lot sooner than expected.

This information comes courtesy of COD Warfare, who is a known dataminer and has extensively taken a peek at the coding inside of recent Call of Duty games. With the recent update for Modern Warfare 3, it seems that some coding of some unannounced Call of Duty has made it into the Call of Duty HQ app. 

I can only find the following to do with SAT in the files.

Kinda odd. pic.twitter.com/MtrnSoXdwD

— COD Warfare (@CODWarfareForum) August 26, 2024

While it doesn’t appear to be significant at first glance, Black Ops fans will no doubt recognize Cosmodrome, a location featured throughout the Black Ops series. The naming “mp_sat” is one that is also found in multiple lines of code, with it sharing similarities to two other names, those being “Rex” and “Rap,” with each having the name “COD” followed by a two-digit number that clearly marks the year of release. 

So if Tom is correct and nothing has changed, unlike the files suggest and insiders saying it has.

The data should be broken down like this

Image 1 – Sat Cod 2025 – Black Ops 7, Treyarch Led.
Image 2 – Rex – COD 2026 – MW4 and WZ3, IW.
Images 3 Rap – Unknown Developer.… https://t.co/9FxIHfjRmR pic.twitter.com/RIc22NM6zV

— COD Warfare (@CODWarfareForum) August 26, 2024

With Cosmodrome’s name tied to “Sat,” this points to next year’s release being a continuation of sorts for this year’s Black Ops release. We reached out to COD Warfare for further clarification and to determine whether this could just be a possible year two for Black Ops 6. However, based on their knowledge, year two was “scrapped” in favor of fast-tracking a sequel to this year’s release.

While that may seem odd, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, as Activision did this for last year’s release, Modern Warfare III, with the year prior being Modern Warfare II. Of course, there were a lot of reasons for doing that, with one of the biggest being the poor reception that Modern Warfare II received. It’s a little bit of a different situation this time around, though, as Black Ops 6 has yet to be released, meaning we’ve yet to see how the public will take to it. Then again, it’s possible there was a Year 2 planned, but it became much bigger than anticipated and was decided to just turn it into a new game. 

As for the other two codenames, Rex and Rap, it’s believed that Rex, which is targeting 2026 for release, is led by Infinity Ward, with COD Warfare telling us it’ll be another mainline in the Modern Warfare franchise (Modern Warfare 4 most likely). 

COD 2025 weapon list. pic.twitter.com/eF9C4e0DrY

— COD Warfare (@CODWarfareForum) August 26, 2024

Again, there is not much to really connect it to Infinity Ward at first, but anyone who’s been keeping an eye on how Infinity Ward names their weapons and such, knows that they use the NATO phonetic alphabet in their coding. “WZ3,” which most likely refers to Warzone 3, was also spotted in the coding in the second image above. 

Do keep in mind that all this information was extracted from the recent update, which also just so happens to align with the information from known industry leaker Tom Henderson, who previously stated on X that Call of Duty 2026 would be developed by Infinity Ward and 2027 led by Sledgehammer Games. It was, however, unknown who would be developing Call of Duty 2025, with Tom saying that the studio had yet to be assigned with the belief that it would fall onto Treyarch. 

If the coding is anything to go by, then Treyarch may very well be in charge of next year’s premium experience. That does beg the question, though, can they really pull that off, two Call of Duty games less than a year apart? We can only assume that Treyarch won’t develop it alone if this is the case. Perhaps Black Ops 6 being developed in four years will help Treyarch in transitioning from this year’s title to the next? One can only assume at this point.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to be released this October 25 on PS4, Xbox One, PS5. Xbox Series X|S and PC, with the game’s beta kicking off this weekend.

More Call of Duty Reading:

• Report: Call of Duty Gifting Bundles Feature Returning in Black Ops 6 Per Datamine
• Black Ops 6 Beta Rewards, COD Next Rewards Revealed; Multiplayer Trailer Showcases Omnimovement
• Report: Black Ops 6 Leaks Stemmed From COD Patch; “Human Meat Shield” Mechanic Footage Surfaces

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