Ajax in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

The DeanBeat: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 takes a lot of risks, not all good

Game development studio Treyarch is taking a lot of risks with this year’s multiplayer-only Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. And in my opinion, not all of the choices are good ones. That makes me nervous, as I’ve always been a big Call of Duty fan. I’ve liked Call of Duty every year, even when fans say the franchise has had off years.

For years, Treyarch’s studio has delivered the most popular Call of Duty games with the Black Ops franchise, which has been played by more than 200 million players to date. I have been one of Treyarch’s biggest fans. Its single-player campaigns have stood out for their originality, memorable villains, and action set pieces. But Black Ops 4 won’t have a single-player campaign. And that ticks me off.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.