Gavin Goslin, a level artist and designer who worked at Treyarch for over 15 years, recently discussed the commercial performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops II following their re-release in 2026. He criticized the fact that the older titles continue to generate substantial revenue while the actual creators involved in their development receive no new compensation.
Goslin stated that he and his team invested a significant amount of time to complete these two titles, enduring brutal periods of intense crunch. While he finds comfort in seeing the results of their work from over a decade ago still ranking high on sales charts, he also feels bitterness at the contrast: management continues to reap huge profits from old code without providing additional compensation to the creators, while industry professionals face unemployment.
He believes that since classic games can continue to generate income for publishers, the industry should establish long-term reward and protection mechanisms for those who participated in development and endured crunch pressure back then.
Reports citing data indicate that the two titles sold approximately 11 million copies after their re-release this July, generating nearly $450 million in revenue. U.S. market tracking firm Circana listed them as the highest-grossing games in July and the fifth highest-grossing for the year so far. This release was a direct re-issue rather than a full remake.